Unravel
by Alley Hitachiin
Summary: When she stopped believing, he lost it all. Now the new Guardian is none other but THAT girl. Jack has a long history connected with her but so does Pitch. And when a new villain appears, it takes new help from unknown faces and a familiar rival to take him down. JackxOC
1. I can't believe anymore

**A/N: I just saw Rise of the Guardians today and I LOVED it! OMG! So, now this is my experiment in writing a successful fanfic of this amazing movie. I'm slow when it came to, you know, seeing the movie but now that I saw it, I just love it so much; especially Jack. He's my favorite character with the Easter Bunny as my second. Now, I will give this movie a shot in a fanfic that has implied JackxOC and some glimpses of Easter BunnyxOC. I hope it's good because it's my first shot at writing a fanfic related to this movie. **

**Unravel**

Chapter 1: I Can't Believe Anymore

I'm sure all those that become a Guardian, as the Man in the Moon chooses those unique individuals, all become confused at what they've been transformed into. Unsure of their own nature and capability. What the reason for being chosen from many others in the world by the Man in the Moon. How you became special to be transformed into a Guardian. I'm sure all those Guardians like North, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and even, Jack Frost.

At least, that's how I felt when the Moon told me who I was that very day.

Christmas Eve.

A snowy blizzard created by the infamous Jack Frost circled around with tiny, white snowflakes falling onto the ground. The wind whistling the pearl white trees as silent as Jack wanted them to be. The full moon glisten its gentle light onto a quiet city of only a couple hundred families.

This was the Eve of Christmas. The year of 1963. A peaceful night it was with a beautiful swirl of white snowflakes falling along my sister's face as I smiled and held her pink gloved hand. I pointed to the snow falling onto our shoulders, smiling brightly.

"Now, Madeline, you must remember something whenever you see these," I held my free hand out to catch some of the snowflakes and brought them close to her. "You must remember that these little pieces of delicate artwork are created by one person. Jack Frost."

Her crystal blue eyes widened as she touched the snowflakes of various designs. "Sis, they are really pretty! How can one person create these?"

Looking up with my bright smile still, I let the calm wind flow through my blond hair. "Because he is a gifted person. All those you believe in all have gifts of their own. They spread joy in what they do and that's what Jack does. He spreads joy to children around the world by his gift of using snow."

Knowing that my sister didn't yet believe in HIM just yet, I gave her beautiful reasons to anyways. I've seen him ever since I was eight years old and when I started believing in him, I never stopped. I knew he was real and there wasn't even a reason to **stop** believing in such an amazing person.

The way people say that Jack Frost is only a catch phrase or a myth; they just don't even try to believe just a little bit of him. They never had the faith in doing so because they thought it was foolish but I didn't find it foolish. It wasn't.

And with that, I want my five year old sister to start believing in him sooner than I did. She believed in every person you could think of. Santa Claus. Tooth Fairy. Easter Bunny. The Sandman.

Why not? Why not have she believe in another, too?

"Best be careful in case Jack Frost nips at your nose, Annalisa!" a masculine yet gentle chuckle echoed from behind the trees.

I laughed too as my sister headed back inside. I started walking halfway to the trees, my brown leather strapped boots sinking into the flawless white snow. Crossing my arms, I kept laughing when he finally came out. "Well, hello to you too, Jack Frost!"

A slender yet tall boy walked over, barefoot, to me. His long brown skinny pants and blue hoodie didn't seem to bring much warmth to him but that wasn't a problem for him. He was the spirit of snow, ice, and wind. He didn't even feel the cold anymore. Jack was completely immune to it by now, considering he's been living like that for at least a hundred years.

"Don't you ever get cold?" I knew this was a stupid question to ask but I couldn't help it. I got curious after time to time.

Jack shrugged, leaning on his wooden staff with that usual playful grin. "Anna, you should know that this stuff doesn't faze me anymore. I see you're trying to get your little sister in believing in me." When he added the last sentence, his grin softened as well as his stare.

The snow still blowing around began to calm down. But the redness from the cold started to sting my face with a tingling feeling. I tried to ignore that as best as I could.

"Well, I want her to start early. I wish I started believing in you earlier," I giggled softly, pulling off my fur hood, releasing my beautiful flow of honey blond hair. "I would've enjoyed having snow ball fights with someone other than myself before my sister was born."

I earned myself a laugh from the winter spirit before me. When Jack regained his composure, he held his staff beside him, now standing straight in front of me.

With a quick flick of his hand, he created a beautiful snowflake in front of me. He walked over to me and placed it in my hand with a warming smile on his face. "Well, I'm just glad within these hundred years, somebody would actually believe in me for once. I hope that soon grows but if it doesn't, it's fine if you still believe in me, Anna."

I smiled too with the redness still present on my cheeks. Reaching up to his head, I ruffled his white hair. "You'll have more believers than me, Jack. But you just have to believe in yourself, too. If you don't, then that won't happen. Have faith in yourself, Jack Frost. You'd be surprised in how many good things can happen if you do."

"Annalisa, dear, who are you talking to? It's past your bedtime, missy!" my mother hollered as she opened the wooden door of our cabin.

I turned around, taking my hand back from Jack. I started running over but stopped real quick and waved goodbye to Jack. "I'll see you later, Jack! Keep in mind what I've told you!"

* * *

**A few months later... **

Everyone at my school at the time made fun of me. The fact that I still believed in all those childhood holiday heroes and such, they saw I was pathetic. And for the reason I actually believed in the infamous Jack Frost in their world, they said he wasn't even real. But I always tried to prove that he existed.

As much I tried to, however, they didn't care. They thought I was seeing things or they were just strange dreams that I was having. Never once did they take in account that he truly DID exists as the others do, too.

And for that, every time I headed back home, snowballs thrown at my head. My backpack dumped onto the tiled flooring of my school. My locker trashed with crumbled paper and torn pages of my own text books. People would throw stuff at me in and out of school, too. Throwing things like books, food, cans and everything else towards me. They would always scream and laugh at me, saying "Ha! You call yourself a sophomore in high school, freak?!" "Oh look! It's the childish girl that still believes in SANTA CLAUS!" "Jack Frost doesn't exist, bitch!"

Every day, this would happen. I felt like the only friends I truly had been my own family and Jack. No one other than them.

I didn't mind having a close relationship with my family and a winter spirit but the fact that I didn't have any friends really began to take a toll on me.

From then on, I started to become depressed. I went outside less often, even when it was snowing. I locked myself in my room half the time, only coming downstairs for eating. Most of the time, I would just lie in bed while covering myself in blankets.

There were even times Jack tried to get me outside but every time, I would reject him. I would just ignore him as he would look through the window with a pleading stare.

I felt bad because he knew something wasn't right with the way I've been acting lately. He was concerned and like I said, every day, he would try to talk to me but I kept refusing him.

"Anna! Why do you keep avoiding me? Is something wrong?" Jack asked me one day as he followed me home, alertness started to seep into his voice.

He ran over in front of me, his hands extended to stop my walking. "Please! Answer me!"

I bit my lip tensely, avoiding his blue eyes. I gripped my books in my arms tightly and spoke quietly. "I don't think I can believe in you much anymore."

His body twitched slightly at my shocking and painful words. He blinked twice in the sudden silence after I spoke. When I looked up slowly, my stomach started to hurt. Something in me twisted as I saw the hurt I just caused by my careless words.

"W-what?" he stuttered in surprise. Jack's eyes began to fill with hurt and fear at my words.

I choked back the tears I wanted to release. My own voice started to crack as I continued to speak. "Jack, I can't believe in you anymore. Everyone at my school is bullying me because of it. I tried to tell them you were real but they don't listen. So, please," I looked up at him with teary blue eyes, crying. "Please just don't come to see me anymore."

Jack's blue eyes widened in utter shock at what I just said to him. The words of saying I refused in believing in him anymore. He was in surprise at what I was insisting to him.

"A-anna?" he reached his hand out to me but I looked back down and started to run away, tears streaming off my face. "ANNA! WAIT!"

"I'm sorry, Jack!" I whispered to myself, still running and crying.

* * *

**A year later... **

It's been nearly a year after I stopped believing in Jack. I never saw him anymore, unless he hid from me. I still had a portion of Jack existing still. Even so, he never appeared his face anymore. I always imagine how badly he was taking it that first week. After saying such a bad thing, I could never have the guts to go back to apologize.

During this one year gap of not seeing him, I started to feel the same emotions of not being believed in.

After that day, right on the night of Christmas, the Moon talked to me. He called himself "The Man in the Moon." He was explaining that I shouldn't stop believing in Jack for such trivial things of those that don't. He also told me that it doesn't matter what age you believed in anything. Whether it is Jack Frost or even the Tooth Fairy. For me, they were real and it's those that don't see them that miss the reality. The moon told me to continue believing and spreading that belief as he told me one thing. He never explained what I was to the world. The only thing he said was that I was one of the Guardians.

And with that, he called me the "Spirit of Christmas." Never mentioning the ability I had or why he had chosen me as one of his "unique" group of individuals after a horrible thing I did to Jack.

Perhaps it's to repay back what I did. And to make sure others follow in my path of fixing mistakes.

If that's how I have to help fix what I've done as a Guardian, then I will accept it.

The only problem was…

When I turned into a spirit, I realized that I wouldn't see my own family anymore. I couldn't return back to them and since I'll live longer than them now, I wouldn't see them in the future.

The other thing being that I lost my memories when I became a spirit, which meant, I didn't remember my family anymore. I didn't remember any sort of childhood memory, including those with Jack.

Now, I feared that…

I didn't remember who that winter spirit was anymore.

I hope that I can fix it, though.

More importantly, he'll remember me. The only problem… I don't know if he'll forgive me.

* * *

**A/N: So? Likey so far? I hope so! ^^ Also, the spirit of Christmas is like an angel, in which case Annalisa is. But it's a twist because her power isn't shown yet. Let's just say opposites don't attract and the way she acted before she changed is completely different to how she is now as a Guardian. I sure hope Jack can forgive her, though! Because when Pitch comes back stronger than ever with a little helper, the Guardians need to most help they can get. **


	2. Unsure

**A/N: O_o Wow! 3 reviews already and I just published this today! XD I feel the love guys! ^^ And what's to become of our new little Guardian? Let's see, shall we? Went a little higher on the word count, lol XD **

Chapter 2: Unsure

I'm beginning to feel the way I treated Jack. No one believes that there's such spirit in charge of Christmas, other than North or known as Santa Claus to children. So, I'm starting to feel the neglect that Jack was having problems with.

At least Jack has something to use, though. He wields ice, snow, and wind. And he's somewhat known about in songs, just not as an actual person.

With me, all I can do is wield fire and a sword. That's not very joyful, in my opinion. The only benefit regarding fun for me is flying with real angel wings. That was about it. My gifts of being a spirit are pretty limited and pathetic. I don't even feel that different.

I mean, sure my appearance changed. My eyes aren't blue anymore but gold. My hair isn't blond like it was before. It's now white, like Jack's. And also including the fact I have wings grown out of my back. My complexion is slightly paler than it was before.

Yeah.

But other than that, nothing major changed. My personality is pretty much the same.

I sat on top of an old church that stood from back in my time. The gold bell locked in its own room was all dusty and some cracks were noticeable. It's clear to me they haven't used that bell for quite some time, considering all the old details.

Letting my right foot dangle off of the cement building, I crossed my arms on my knees, burying my mouth inside my arms.

I honestly don't know if I'll ever see that spirit. You know. Jack Frost. I hope he'll come across some day because now that I'm a spirit like him, I should be able to see him without having to revert back to my usual believing ways.

I shifted my gold eyes onto the orange reddish sunset before me. My pouting face turned into a bright smile as I leaned back against the roof of the church. Still having one leg dangling, I kept my grip on my left leg, watching.

"So beautiful," I mumbled to myself, watching in awe at the mixture of bright colors before me.

"North, he's getting away!" a familiar voice called out in alarm.

Next thing I knew before I could comprehend the voice; I first saw a hummingbird looking girl flying away with a gold covered boy with sand. The next was a huge red sleigh carrying a long bearded, heavy set guy with an abnormally tall bunny with a boomerang. The other remaining weird person was someone I remembered from years ago. It was a flying boy with short spiking white hair with a blue hoodie and brown pants with a brown wooden staff, who also followed the others before him.

"JACK?!" I shot up from my spot, tracking my eyes over to the surprised white haired boy, who stopped in dead tracks at my familiar voice.

He stared at me with confused blue eyes for a moment but shifted his eyes at dark nightmares coming his way. Jack turned to me again and flew over, grabbing my hand and taking off.

"WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I demanded, flailing my arms frantically at Jack's sudden grip of my leg. I was being dragged upside down by Jack, who never said what was going on.

I turned my head to the weird nightmare things after us and gulped loudly. "Um… JACK! WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS AND WHY ARE THEY AFTER YOU?! MORE IMPORTANTLY… WHY AM I SUDDENLY BEING DRAGGED UPSIDE DOWN?!"

Jack looked down at me with serious blue eyes and gave me the scariest glare ever. "They're Pitch's nightmares. We have to hurry. I'll explain later."

"Pitch? Who is that? GAH!" I asked but felt his hand slip and that's when I fell.

It wasn't a problem for me to recover and fly away. I wasn't scared about that but the fact that the nightmares were after ME as well was the thing I was getting scared about. I didn't do anything to these things and yet, they suddenly go for me, too! I don't even know what they want from me nor do I know who this Pitch is!

"Oh my God! Why are they after me, too?!" I started crying, unfolding my wings and sped off to catch up with Jack and the rest of his group.

"North! It would be a good time to get us out of here!" Jack, totally ignoring my pleas, hollered furiously to the heavy set man in the huge sleigh.

"Hmm… is this your newest addition, **Guardians**?" a dark man with tall black hair appeared in the center of all six of us.

His cold eyes flickered to mine with an evil smirk. And being the idiot I was, I didn't understand why he was so interested in who the new Guardian was. More importantly, I was standing there like a statue; unmoving and floating there, wide-eyed.

"Let's see… an angel? How interesting… Tell me, dear. What's your name?" the creepy man disappeared and appeared right in front of me, his evil grin never leaving his pale face.

Trying to keep my fear a low profile, I backed up slowly, glaring coldly at him. "Why do you want to know?"

He held out his hand as dark onyx black sand floated in the palm. "Quite simple. I know all the Guardians names except for yours. Plus…" his eyes sparked a bit of anger as the sand grew bigger and started to circle around me like rope.

"What the…?!" I turned my head on both sides, seeing the sand wrap around me.

His smirk growing wider before he crushed his hand into a fist. "I want to see how an angel can fly when they don't have wings. Goodbye!"

"Wha… AHHHHH!" I felt the sand cling against me like actual chains and that's when I got intertwined with it. My wings got tangled and I started to fall, my hair hitting my face in the process.

Annalisa, think of something. Something quick or else I am a goner! Think, think, think!

I tried reaching for my sword to cut through the chains around me but it seems that won't be able to aid me, since I can't even move an inch of my muscles to stretch. Oh my God! I'm so going to die!

Wait a minute! I thought, shooting my eyes open. My gold eyes started to burn like flames as did my hand. I moved my hand as far as it could go to the chains and quickly, burning each chain of sand that I could within my very, very limited time left before I crashed onto a building.

"Yes!" I broke free just in time and flashed my wings out and flew at lightning speed at the dark man that chained me and before he saw it coming, I took my leg and kicked him in the stomach as hard as possible.

"Don't you dare tie me up like some rag doll again! I'm not someone you can easily take advantage of! My name's Annalisa and I'm the Spirit of Christmas. Don't mess with me!" I hissed angrily, landing another punch straight up at his chin.

"Hmm… it seems so, Annalisa. However, have you forgotten I control various nightmares that are surrounding you," he managed a cold laugh as he disappeared from me in the blink of an eye.

I whipped my head around to notice the horses ready to strike and started to back away. "Well… I can see it's time to head out. Jack!"

And there he was. He stood there without saying anything. His blue eyes staring at me in shock. Jack's mouth went open but closed again, still being consumed by surprise. He clutched his staff harder and managed to say something this time. "Annalisa? You mean… the Annalisa that believed in me long ago?"

I slapped my forehead and grabbed his arm, flying with him behind me. "Now's not the time to get sucked into confusion and shock, Jack! Not to mention I have no idea where I'm going!"

"When did you suddenly become a Spirit?" his voice started to turn into sadness at our huge year separation from when I first told him to not see me anymore.

I sighed as I kept tugging him along. "Look. I'll explain it to you when we get back to wherever you guys came from."

* * *

I started grimacing at the tiny pointed elves that started following me annoyingly. These little things are getting super annoying right now! Stop following me, pipsqueak!

"As you see, Annalisa," North pushed open the tall wooden doors to his workshop room.

It contained a bunch of conveyer belts, toys of all sorts, and more importantly, a huge statue of the world was spinning in front of us. Various bright gold lights were spread across each country, every continent. My guess was that these were all the children that believed in him.

"Annalisa," North snapped his fingers in front of me to bring me out of my daze. He pointed to another statue that was a stone image of a girl. She had wavy hair and a beautiful smile. Her feathery wings in the background were visible. "This," he started, pointing to the sculpture. "This is you, is it not?"

I nodded slowly.

"Alright. The Man in the Moon stated that this is our other Guardian. You introduced yourself as Annalisa, the Spirit of Christmas, which you are completely right about. He sent us this statue of you to resemble our newest Guardian. We welcome you to our group," he smiled, patting his round tummy. "I am North, this is Toothiana, Bunnymund, Sandman, and Jack Frost. We humbly accept you as our other Guardian, Miss Annalisa."

Before I headed outside for a breather of everything going on, I smiled and said my thank you as well as nod.

* * *

"Ah," I sighed heavily, plopping onto the snow filled ground. I picked up some of the snow underneath me and let it fall in the gentle wind. Watching it carefully, something was starting to ache in my stomach. It felt like that one feeling I had when I saw Jack upset years ago. The feeling was similar. And yet, my whole purpose of becoming a Guardian meant I could apologize to Jack about what I did those years.

But I felt like I wasn't doing anything to keep that promise right now. I have a feeling he won't accept my apology and I don't expect him to, either. I did a horrible thing for my own selfish desire in not being a laughing stock at school. Even though he's just a spirit, he's also a human, too. He has feelings like any average person would have.

Yet, I acted carelessly towards him. I don't think one simple apology will be enough to forgive what I did.

I groaned at my conflict, letting my head hit the snow with a PLOP! I ran my hand through my white hair and sighed again. I honestly don't know. I don't know.

When I felt the wind starting to pick up, I rolled my gold eyes and spoke, without looking. "I'm a Spirit now, yeah, but I still know you're hiding, Jack."

"One thing that didn't change," he mumbled softly, walking over and took a seat by me. "What happened to not believing me anymore?"

I sighed, pulling myself up and sat straight. "I did, Jack."

"No, you didn't, Anna," he interjected coldly, keeping his blue eyes on me. "I could still sense you still believed in me. I knew you still did even after you said you wouldn't."

"Jack, don't fight me on this. I did stop believing," I said, my voice inching slowly to irritation by his persistent argument.

"Quit lying, Anna. I could sense you still did," he kept on with his argument. He wasn't going to back down easily.

I whipped my head at him angrily, nearly shouting at him. "OKAY! FINE! MAYBE I DID, JACK! BUT IF YOU KNEW, HOW COME YOU DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO CHECK ON ME? HUH?!"

"BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO STOP SEEING YOU, ANNA! YOU MADE THE SHOT AND I DIDN'T WANT TO GO AGAINST YOUR WORD!" he hissed back at me, the wind started to pick up its speed gradually as he continued to yell. "AND IF I WANTED TO, I COULDN'T. DO YOU REALIZE HOW BAD THAT HURT FOR ME? TO SEE THE ONLY PERSON BELIEVING IN ME WALKING AWAY AND FORGETTING I EXISTED?! DO YOU REALIZE HOW HURTFUL THAT WAS, ANNA?!"

I turned my head away from him. Holding my chest, I kept my face down to the ground as I thought. Of course I did, Jack. But the fact you didn't show up, as soon as you realized I still believed in you. You knew I still believed and yet, you didn't appear anymore. You realize how hurtful that was for me, too?

Still looking down, I spoke quietly to his whip of questions. "I know, Jack. I said horrible things to you because of my own selfish desires. It was a bad thing for me to say and since I was one of few believers in you, I understand how bad that must've hurt. That's why; I want to apologize for saying such a thing, Jack."

A deep sigh escaped Jack's mouth. His grip on his wooden staff lightened and his blue eyes began to grow softer and calmer. He placed one pale hand on his chin, looking away momentarily when he spoke. "Anna, something like that is something hard to accept an apology from. It's not something easy any Spirit could do, especially since you were the only one to actually **see** me. I don't know if I can ever forgive what you did."

My gold eyes started to fill with sadness as he spoke. The fact that he didn't say he couldn't forgive me but can't ever. This meant he probably, as much as he tried could never come to accept my own apology and from my own stupidity, I wouldn't be able to see him as the old Jack anymore.

Slowly getting up from my spot, I started to walk away from Jack. I paused midway, keeping my face away from his. "Well… in that case, I just wanted you to realize how sorry I was for that day, whether you'll forgive me or not, Jack. I'm really sorry about it."

Then, I turned back to the workshop of North and headed back without waiting for Jack.

Jack Frost just sat where he was, playing around with snow to form a beautifully hand made snowflake. Its designs were delicately made with small lines on each point. This snowflake almost resembled the image of a flower, with gorgeous petals releasing unique designs.

He let the snowflake twirl in his right palm with his staff across his legs. Jack kept his blue eyes staring intently on the small yet beautiful snowflake in his hand. His other hand leaned on his cheek as he felt a tiny grimace smile appear onto his face.

It's not that I couldn't forgive you, Anna. It's just… well… I don't think I CAN do that. If I do, I feel like its wrong but if I don't, I'm making you upset. This problem isn't something I can easily manage and I hope you realize that I'm truly struggling with the right way in handling my decision.

Jack exhaled a silent breath of air and looked up at the full moon rising in the dark sky. "I just hope… you don't learn to hate me because of it."

He released the small snowflake from his grip as he watched it fly off in the distance. It started to blend with the others and eventually, it was completely invisible, much like the way Jack felt. He felt like one by one, he starting to be torn apart. He felt that the decision he was making… was the wrong one.

"I hope this isn't what I'll be in the end. Pushed away into the crowd without a goodbye like last time."


	3. Jack's Sudden Sadness

**A/N: I changed the summary countless times but I guarantee that the outcome of that will be worth it in the end. You'll see in like chapter 10 or something ^^ And I switched the pairing of my OC, Annalisa. Of course Jack stays because he's AWESOME and cute! XD But I'm going to switch out Bunnymund with Pitch for reasons you'll see later on. It'll help with the problem the Guardians face with Pitch. **

Chapter 3: Jack's Sudden Sadness

"Woo! Boomerang! I wonder how it works!" I took it from Bunnymund's back and ran away with it, as the Bunny ran after me.

"Hey, mate! Don't go and take other people's stuff!" he yelled, chasing out to the cliff until we both stood face to face. He kept his angry glare on me as he put his furry hand out to me. "Hand it back."

I shifted my eyes down at the tan wooden boomerang and back at him. I shook my head and stuck my tongue out. "Nah uh!"

Then, I fell back on the cliff and crossed my arms as I began to float. I loved mocking this Bunny. He had such a hot headed temper and anything practically sets him off. For example, Jack being around for a mere minute or pulling a simple childish prank on him.

"What?! Quit with your Jack Frost act!" he growled, frustrated trying to jump up and get his weapon back. But, being the smart angel I was, I floated back even more, making it completely impossible for Bunnymund to even grab my hand.

I slapped my forehead and laughed at him, pointing to my wings. "I'm an angel, Kangaroo, not some snow flying boy with a wooden staff."

"I'M NOT A KANGAROO!" Bunnymund hissed, his temper continuously growing at my fuel.

"Did someone just say snow?" Jack came up from behind me and easily slid the boomerang out of my grasp, smirking.

I turned my head, pouting at Jack's sudden appearance. Waving my hands in front of him to grab the boomerang from his grasp, he simply just tilted back and forth. A small chuckle escaped his mouth as he leaned onto his wooden staff.

"Games and pranks are all my ideas, Anna. Not yours so, don't steal them," he continued to laugh at my attempts of getting the item from him but I kept on failing badly.

A vein popped in my forehead at his now booming laughter. I crossed my arms, pouting at the white haired trickster before me. "I'm not stealing them, Jack! Ugh! I'm just having FUN!"

That's when a wide smirk appeared on his face as he pulled his staff and pointed it close to my tiny nose. His ice blue eyes sparked with mischief when he spoke. "And that's my center, too. Fun. You can't possibly have fun if the Spirit of Winter isn't around. But since I am you are having fun, aren't you?"

Facepalm!

"I have no idea what you mean by CENTER but I can have fun when the," I formed my pale fingers in the shape of quotation marks. "SPIRIT OF WINTER isn't around."

"Oh really?" his smirk getting wider within each second.

My golden eyes started to widen and I shook my head, waving my hands in front of my chest. "No, Jack. I'm not having a snowball war with you. Jack… JACK! DID YOU EVEN LISTEN TO ME!?"

A bunch of wind swirled around with small snowflakes circling. As the wind picked up, so did the heaviness of the snowflakes turning into thick powdery white snow. Jack's face, even with the heavier wind and rapid swirl of snow blurring my vision, I could still sense he had that gigantic smirk on his face. This face was similar to the one he had before we did snowball fights back when I was human and still believed in him. He would always have a toothy grin and get all hyped up because an average human girl was challenging the Great Spirit of Winter.

I landed onto the cold pile of snow, since the wind was too much for me to fly in. But when I touched a tad bit of the snow with my toe, a sudden tingling of cold shot through my entire body. My breath was able to be seen from others as I rubbed my arms up and down, trying to provide warmth to myself. While my teeth, on the other hand, decided to chatter from the mere touch of the freezing frozen powder beneath my bare feet. Wearing nothing but a white dress without any sleeves wasn't the way to go in subzero ice like conditions, especially when Jack Frost was making a snow storm and ready to fight with snowballs.

Lifting my head up to Jack, my voice still shook from my coldness. "If I get sick from this, it's your entire fault, Jack!"

Jack shrugged as he landed swiftly onto the snow ground, still smiling with his pearl white teeth. He picked up a handful of snow off the ground and transformed it into a perfectly shaped snow ball. "Here, Kangaroo. Anna and I are going to have a **little** snowball fight. You can join if you want."

"Psh! You wish," Bunnymund grumbled, catching his weapon and hopped away angrily.

"Achoo! Ugh! Jack, make this quick or I really might get sick!" I grumbled, rolling my pile of snow into a snowball.

"What? Getting cold already, Anna?" he smirked, throwing full force his snowball directly at my face.

The snowball hit my face by the amount of force he put into his throw. Slowly falling off my face, I wiped the remaining snow off with my bare hand and the cold tingling feeling made its way up to my now rosy cheeks. The wind kept prickling at my nose, causing it to turn the same shade of red like my cheeks.

Even though I was getting angry from the cold and Jack, I couldn't help but smile as I threw my snowball at Jack. It's been awhile since I had fun like this, fifty years to be exact. We hadn't seen each other for that long and I honestly thought I'd never see Jack again or believe I'd ever become a Guardian all of a sudden.

Fifty years is probably coming out of nowhere but it's true. I was sixteen when I last saw Jack. Then, another year went on and I became seventeen. That was also the time I became the Spirit of Christmas. So, when that happened, my aging stopped and it ended up like Jack's; trapped at the appearance of an seventeen year old girl but really a lot older. However, Jack, from what I learned way back in elementary school, he was eighteen when he first died and became a Spirit. In reality, he was actually three hundred years old or probably more now.

Anyways, I would actually be around fifty years old. And if I was fifty, my sister would be around forty, I believe.

Then, that's when it struck me while we continued laughing and throwing snowballs. I began to think of this thought for quite some time but it really hit me this time.

My sister. My little sister, Madeline. She's still alive! She isn't that old! She had to be somewhere in the world! Maybe back in Burgess?

God, have I missed her so much. I haven't seen her since that time before I began to get depressed about Jack. I always wondered how she was doing all these years. She probably was wondering where I went for fifty years. She probably wrote letters to me at the time, calling, anything to get in communication with me. And yet, I didn't know because I haven't seen her through those long years.

"Hey, Jack," after an hour of snowball throwing, we both just sat in the snow, watching the full moon and puffy clouds.

"Hmm?" he responded, turning his blue eyes to me.

I crossed my legs, hugging them and smiled to him. "Remember how when I was human, you told me about your past life? Do you ever think about her?"

Jack was slightly surprised in my question relating to his family. We haven't really touched on this subject for quite some time so, it's not a deep shock to not respond to it.

"Well, um, I do sometimes. I wonder how she was when she witnessed my "death" in the pond ice. I mean, I'm sure that she cried her eyes out when she saw her own brother dying instantly. Why the sudden question on that?" he answered, still keeping his curious blue eyes staring at me.

"I'm just wondering if I should see my sister after all these years. She's most likely still out there, too. Plus, she might believe in me. My mother and father, too. They could still be out there! I really want to see them," I smiled brightly at him.

But when I spoke with a cheerful and hopeful voice to Jack, I noticed his smile started to fall into a sad frown. His blue eyes began to grow gloomy at my response to his question. He looked away from me and mumbled quietly. "If you want to see them, you can. But the outcome might not be how you expect it to be, Anna. So, don't get too hopeful."

"Um…Jack? What do you…?" I asked again, concern taken my voice over as I reached out to him but he jumped up with a gust of wind and walked away without a single word. "…Jack…?"

Jack, what do you mean by that?

* * *

"Hmm… hmm…hmm… seems this new Guardian they have might prove to be a problem in my plans," Pitch rubbed his chin in fear as he waved his hand to reveal a picture of the new Guardian by the name of Annalisa.

It was already difficult enough for him to face five Guardians, since Jack joined. Now, he had to put up with another one but it wasn't your average holiday fighter. This one was able to wield a powerful element that could seriously burn his plans into shreds. He couldn't let that happen. Not even more a second.

Every minute in each day was important to him. He needed each moment to be precise in his plans so that everything would become his. He couldn't let this Spirit of Christmas ruin such a well thought out and planned out scheme.

"If I'm not careful, I could risk everything facing this one girl," he spoke to himself, rubbing one of his Nightmares neck slowly and cautiously, still eyeing the image of the Spirit.

Overall, the major concerns Pitch found in the now six Guardians were Jack Frost and Annalisa. His reasoning?

Jack only had a few believers while Annalisa had none. Therefore, this meant that their weakness would be harder to find, since Jack received his teeth and past memories already. As for Annalisa, she was the new addition. So, he hadn't really seen any type of weakness from her yet. But if he wanted his plans to take action soon, he needed to find her weakness rather quickly.

The other Guardians were no trouble for Pitch. He could simply crush each holiday or event one by one and make the rest become weak and unable to fight.

Pitch waved his hand with black sand again as it appeared with a new image. The same girl walking in an abandoned village known as Burgess. The houses were caved in with shingles ripped off each roof. Wood thrown to the snow that was now covered in debris. Snow and ice covered what was left of each cabin for those that used to live there long ago.

Slowly, Pitch grew a wide evil grin as he stared intently at the horrifying picture before him.

"Hmm… wouldn't this girl like to hear the truth behind this entire mess of her birthplace? I'm sure that would crush her heart in a blink of an eye."

With that, he made the image disappear and black sand circled around him.

Looks like he might've found her weakness after all.


	4. Secrets and Lies

**A/N: I like writing this fanfic, strangely. Maybe cause of Jack Frost and the suspense in it? XD As for my other fanfic, "Just Another Year," I don't want anyone to think I'm abandoning it by any means. I'm not, promise. I've just in a frenzy where I love ROtG right now and over the weekend, I promise a new chapter shall be up and running for that fanfic. I apologize if you readers are angry with me T_T. Back to this fanfic, what will happen to Anna? What will Pitch do when he encounters her? What will he tell her? Is the truth or a lie? Will she believe it? What if she does? What will happen? Ah! Jack! Where are you when Anna needs you?!**

* * *

Chapter 4: Secrets and Lies

Buildings torn to shreds with debris of wood and glass shattered onto the dirt filled snow. Various colored shingles were battered and thrown viciously onto the rocky pathway. Only some walls were still held up for each home but the top parts of them were crumbled apart with ice and snow.

A cold breeze blew gently through my white hair with snow flurries falling slowly and quietly onto the silent ground. The trees, or what was left of them, had their snow embedded branches swaying back and forth from the breeze.

I turned my head back and forth slowly to observe the now destroyed home of my past self from fifty years ago. Seeing this destruction began to tug at me painfully as I slumped to the ground, covering my face while crying, releasing clear tears onto the snow ground.

Did this possibly mean… my family was… **dead**?

"Shame isn't it? A beautiful town reduced to this mess," a dark and sinister voice rang out, echoing.

Black sand started to take shape into the mixture of flurries. The snow became covered in darkness, being consumed by the now present black sand. This sand was familiar to me. It resembled Sandman's but his wasn't black and he barely spoke. It could only be one person in particular.

I whipped my head around, shooting up from my spot with my hands balled into fists. My gold eyes glared angrily at the dark man before me. Almost gritting my teeth and having a touch of venom in my voice, I hissed at him. "Pitch, why are you even here?"

Pitch clapped his hands, laughing darkly. "You know my name already! How wonderful!"

I gritted my teeth furiously as the wind around me picked up tenfold. I slashed my hand in front of me. My gold eyes kept its focus on the enemy in front. "Enough! You shouldn't even be here, Pitch!"

He immediately silenced his laughter as his face grew serious. His dark silver eyes pierced directly on me. With a snap of his fingers, a few nightmares surrounded around him at his command. He walked slowly around me, keeping his serious look on. "I can be anywhere, _**Annalisa**_. Anywhere I want. And I just happened to run into the Guardians new addition. How about we discuss this family matter of yours?"

My eyes widened in shock at what he meant. I kept my hard glare focused on him, turning whenever he got out of sight. "What do you know? No… much more of HOW much do you know about my family?"

He shrugged as he stood in front of me. "Much more than what your friend, Jack, thinks he knows."

"You've never met me before, Pitch. Jack knew me longer than you have, anyways. What makes you believe you know more about me than him?" I kept glaring at him angrily.

Pitch pointed his long pale finger to himself and smirked evilly. "For one, the family you've been with for your entire life is nothing more than a simple adopted family."

That was when the wind picked up even more, violently racing through my hair. I nearly screamed at him with all my fury and might at once. "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?! NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT EXCEPT FOR ME! NOT EVEN JACK!"

Pitch disappeared briefly as he reappeared on top of one of the tattered buildings on my left. He kept his smug smile on his face as black sand flew out of his pale hands from the wind. "Simple. Don't you realize that you once had a brother? You see dear Annalisa, you may have lived in Jack's homeland and befriended him but, truly, he doesn't actually know the real you. If anyone out the Guardians were to know your entire story, none of them but me would agree to it. I know more than any of those people will ever come to realize."

"I never had a brother! What are you saying?!" I hissed, still showing off my anger with his frustrating words. My hands balled into fists along my sides once more.

"A-N-N-A… that's where you're wrong. You did have a brother. And that person, you may wonder, is still alive. In fact…" he disappeared again and showed his dark self-right in front of me again. This time, he was closer than usual. He began to smile again but in a cold way. "You're actually looking at him."

"WHAT?!" I jumped back, sitting on one of the buildings like he did and stared wide eyed at him. I covered my mouth in fear at what he was saying to me. The fact that this evil person before me was supposed to be my brother completely slipped my mind. It wasn't possible. For me to be related to such an evil and cold person such as Pitch, the controller of nightmares. The Bogeyman. There was no way I was this guy's sister. No freaking way!

I pointed my index finger at him, still gaping with fear. "You… you are NOT my brother! An evil person like you can't be! It's not possible!"

"And do you realize what happened to your adopted family, Anna? This mess you see before you… it was done by one person! One person by the name of J-…!" he shouted, slowly reaching to anger when he saw the white haired Spirit of Winter come to my side with an evil glare set on him.

Jack stared Pitch down with the most intense glare I've ever seen from him. He gripped his staff angrily and whipped it straight at Pitch, snarling. "I've think you've said enough, PITCH."

An evil chuckle escaped from Pitch as he stared coldly at Jack. His nightmares circled around him, ready to fight when he gave them the signal. "Now, now, Jack. Isn't it better for the culprit to explain the mess that went on here to the victim instead? I don't think it's proper of me to say such heartbreaking news to my own sister."

"I'm not your sister!" I barked viciously at him, scraping the rest of the shingles left from the cabin.

"Oh come now, Jack. Being a good friend, you have to release that secret sooner or later…" he ignored my vicious interjection, keeping only his focus on the shaking white haired boy beside me.

My temper slowly started to lower and I turned my head to Jack. I noticed he turned even paler than what he normally was. This completely took me by surprise because he was pale, but not ever this badly. It began to send panic through me as I continued to look at the shocked boy in front of me. It didn't even look like the cocky, fun-filled, trickster by the name of Jack Frost at all.

"Jack… what does he mean?" I rose to my feet, standing in front of him with my hands placed onto my hips.

"Yes, Jack. Tell her," a smirk placed its way onto Pitch's face as he crossed his arms in fiendish delight with the nervously shaking Spirit of Winter wrapped around his finger. He got him where he wanted now.

I whipped my head furiously at Pitch and slashed my right arm in front of him. A huge gust of wind surged through taking both of the boys in surprise at my sudden anger expressed in the wind. My gold eyes burned irritably. "Shut up!"

Then, I turned my head back to Jack, still glaring angrily at him as well. "Jack, tell me right now. Did you do this? Do you know where my family is?"

Jack began to turn pale white, gulping loudly. He gripped tighter onto his crooked staff with a frighten look. "Well… um… uh… this was somewhat of my doing… BUT! DON'T THINK I KILLED YOUR SISTER, ANNA! That wasn't me!"

Anger and panic quickly shot through me as I began to shake. I stepped one foot out to Jack and grabbed his wrist, growling furiously at him. "Then WHO did?"

"I don't know! It wasn't me, Anna! I would never do that!"

"Then WHY did you destroy my home as well as yours? Why!" my anger wasn't letting up at all.

As much as I wanted to know why he did this, there wasn't any time to get an answer. The reason being a Nightmare appeared beside Jack and me all of a sudden. I jumped back and threw it back onto the ground as both Jack and I shifted our eyes onto Pitch.

He just stood in his same spot and clapped his hands slowly, his smirk never leaving his face once. "Very entertaining show, Anna! To think that the Spirit of Christmas would fight with the Spirit of Winter. Very interesting. But I'm sorry I have to cut this little conversation short. I'll be looking forward to seeing the epilogue later. Wouldn't your sister just love to see this? Two of her favorite Spirits fighting against each other. Too bad I…" he lowered his head as his silver eyes burned in evil laughter as he spoke. "I **banished **her."

"YOU KILLED HER!? PITTTTTTTTCCCCCHHHH!" I screamed furiously, diving down to hit that evil smile off his face.

I wanted to strangle him for what he did to my sister. He claims I'm his sister and now, he says he murdered my sister! I will never accept him as a brother, if he even is or not. He's better off dead for what he did!

"HAAHAHA! Seems I've made you angry but you've made my Nightmares angry as well!" he began to laugh in that dark tone as he disappeared and several Nightmares made their way in front of me, causing me to brake and fall onto the ground. I ended up sliding with puffs of white snow landed into the air briefly at my sudden stop.

"Damn you, Pitch! Show your face!" I screamed heatedly, wiping dirt off my cheeks. One by one, I punched each Nightmare out of my way as I searched for the enemy on my priority list. The one that involved the tragedy in my family.

"What? Not going to use any of your "Christmas" fire on me? You did last time," an evil laugh echoed loudly. I kept turning my head to locate Pitch but he didn't show up yet.

"ANNA! BEHIND YOU!" Jack, managing to say something after he defeated his portion of Nightmares, jumped off the roof in a mere second and quickly, ran over, hitting Pitch with one of his ice blasts. Jack smacked him across the side, sending Pitch flying into the ground.

Or… that's what we thought was Pitch. Turns out, it was just another Nightmare created by him. While we weren't paying attention, he made his escape through his disappearance. But he was able to still communicate with us before he left.

I clawed at one of the remaining trees in the village roughly. Each piece of bark fell onto the ground; the amount kept doubling as my anger kept at its skyrocket level.

"Anna…" Jack put a cold hand on my shoulder but I shrugged it off within a second. I kept my head down from him.

"He got away this time but next time, I'm not going to have him slip out of my hands. He will PAY dearly for what he's done," I hissed, scratching one long scar onto the tree before I flew back to my own home. While Jack left, sadness was still ruling his mind at not saying anything about this village's disaster and why he did it.

Jack thought to himself that… He may never actually be able to tell her why he did it. He couldn't figure out why he did it himself and giving her the answer for his actions long ago… might be harder for him than for her to listen and comprehend.

He may never have a reason why he did this.

For Jack Frost, this time…

Had no excuse.


	5. Flashback I

**A/N: Wow! So we have a plot twister now! Could Pitch really be Anna's brother? What could this mean? Will Pitch use this to his advantage? Could it possibly mean he'll trick her onto his side? OH NO! Jack, you better not let him do that! Also, I had to name Jack's sister something for a specific reason coming shortly. Her name is, what I made up, Hannah. **

**Jack: O_O She's Pitch's sister? WHAT!**

**Me: -nods- Didn't you hear that? **

**Jack: No…. she doesn't even act like him, though!**

***Pitch walks in* That's because she's more of our mother's side. :P**

**Jack: I feel bad for your mother, then. **

**Pitch: And my sister?**

**Jack: -nods- I can only imagine what your father acted like… O_o**

**Pitch: Grrrr! What's that supposed to mean?! –summons Nightmares-**

**Jack: NOTHING! –runs away frantically-**

* * *

Chapter 5: Flashback I

The sound of burning fire crackled in my red stone fireplace. The orange flames danced brightly on the burnt wood silently, providing me with only this light. While I sat on the maple wood flooring with a brown fleece blanket hand made by myself wrapped around my shoulders. I ran my thumb over a picture I held on to since I was human fifty years ago. The picture was a family photo of my mother, father, and sister.

Now that I realized it and from Pitch telling me they were my adopted family, I could finally understand now. My foster mother had brown hair. My father had brown hair. And my sister? She had the same color. All three of them had bright, luscious emerald green eyes. They looked nothing like me at all and nor did they see me the same way.

All these years I lived with this "fake" family, I really thought I was one of their daughters. Even though, when I got older, I questioned my mother why I didn't look the same like them. She responded to me by saying I was a unique child and I got all these different characteristics from other family members. Only, I believed it then but now, I never bought it. Everyone along this family had either brown or red hair and either green or hazel/brown eyes. No blue eyes or blond hair.

A silent crystal tear slid off my face and hit the picture frame I held carelessly in my cold palms. After all these year, ALL these years and I find out that I'm not even related to my sister, Madeline. No, not even sister should surface to them. I saw her as one but now, I know now.

I threw the picture at the brick wall as hard as possible, to shatter the glass off it. My hands made their way to my eyes and covered them, as more tears flowed out of my palms.

Not realizing now that I never actually belonged in that family. Being told that I was a "unique" child from a mother who wasn't actually my real mother. A sister who wasn't a real sister treating me equally like one. A father that wasn't really a father providing me with care and protectiveness like any other dad would. All these things I didn't deserve if I didn't belong in their family. I didn't deserve any of it.

And now, I might be the sister of a dark spirit. The one the Guardians all strongly dislike and look in disgust of. That person may be my brother. My true brother and yet, he isn't the ideal brother you'd see as caring.

Maybe that's why I started to believe in Jack Frost long ago. I needed someone to talk to other than my family. I had no friends back then. The only friends I had before him were my mother, father, and sister. That was it.

But when Jack saw I believed in him, we both built a strong friendship over time. Since then, I was extremely happy I met him. I think that, if I didn't believe in him, I wouldn't have anyone to help me through my hard times.

I slowly brought my head up, staring intently at the diming flames before me. Now that I've realized that there's no doubt that Pitch may actually be my brother, I had to figure something out.

First off, I needed to be sure that he is. I had no idea how to figure that out but I need some type of source that could date back then. More importantly… was I somehow… erased of my memories? Is that why I can't understand if he really is my biological brother?

Secondly, what would I do if he is? How can I live with that? Will I go into denial countless times, even though it's true? How will the other Guardians see it?

Lastly, I would have to make a choice in the end. Would I help the Guardians banish him or aid him? Either way, I'm stuck. I don't know what would be right or wrong.

Well… I can only take one step at a time and the first priority is to find out if he truly is and that he's not lying. And there was only one way in doing so.

I had to recover my memories by Toothiana.

Then… only then… will I be able to sort out the confliction.

* * *

It was early in the morning that I left for the Tooth Palace. I felt that Toothiana may not be awake at this hour but then again, she is an early bird. Besides, she had to do her job of taking teeth and replacing it with money for all the sleeping children.

A tiny imitation of Toothiana buzzed around me with a small giggle. I smiled back at the little tooth fairy and put her in the center of my palm. I rubbed her head softly as I continued on into the Palace. "Hey, Baby Tooth."

"Ah! Annalisa? Well… I haven't seen you come here a lot!" Toothiana exclaimed, turning her head around and fluttered over to me with a big smile, placing Baby Tooth in her hands now.

I laughed at her flustered expression and followed behind her. "Sorry! It must be a bother since you have work to do. I can come back another time if you prefer."

She turned around to face me again and waved her hands frantically. "No, no! This is just a rare sight to see you here! Of course I'd like you to stay, Anna! What can I help you with?"

I fiddled with my fingers nervously and looked down. "Well… um… I heard from Jack that you have everyone's teeth here. He said you hold on to them so if we need to recover lost memories, we can take them back and see them."

Toothiana nodded and flew over to the various racks holding different children's teeth. She slid her fingers through them until she found one in particular that she wanted. Carefully, she pulled it out of its spot and held it out to me.

The small golden tube had a picture of a small girl. The girl had long wavy blond hair with big bright blue eyes. That child resembled a lot like me back when super tiny, around five years old.

"I see that you want to recover those certain memories, correct?" she spoke gently as she handed my baby teeth to me.

My eyes began to grow wide as I held onto the tube in my hands. These were MY baby teeth when I was little. These were MY memories I had from long ago. These were MY real memories that hold answers to my entire life. My own teeth holding each memory I had of childhood were right in the palm of my hands. They were right in front of me.

Toothiana pointed her small index finger to the tube with a smile. "This will also help you find your center, Anna. That is how Jack learned his. So, when you open this at home, look deep into them. There's more than what meets the eye."

I pulled my teeth closer to my chest and I return with a bright smile on my face. "Thank you so much, Toothiana. You don't realize how much this will help me!"

* * *

Gripping harder onto the gold tube, I stared down on the container of my baby teeth. Over and over, I kept glaring at it, wondering if I really should know the truth yet. I don't know if I can handle it, though. That thought kept racing in my mind as I knew that I was just a mere second away from learning my true identity.

But the other thought of if I don't, I'll never know what went on with my childhood. I'll never know the meaning behind my sudden transformation into a Spirit, if Pitch was my brother, what my entire life was like before I met Jack, and my center. I didn't really know what a 'center' is necessarily. I heard that North is a good person at helping others sort it out but Toothiana said that these memories will greatly help my struggle in my center.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, I pressed the center of container to see a small golden light appear out of it. It began to be blinding but slowly dimmed afterwards and that's when… I began to see what my past was like.

_X FLASHBACK X_

_It was a snowy afternoon. A small blizzard made its way through the small town of Burgess. All the children ran out with fluster faces filled with excitement at the beautiful snow falling on their noses. Mothers and fathers came out with their various colored scarves and coats to help their children build snowmen of their own. _

_Everyone, even I, ran outside. I fell onto the puffy white snow and giggled loudly to myself. I began to make a snow angel when I plopped into the snow again; a big warm smile appeared across my chubby face. _

"_Anna, I swear, you are just one weird sister," a dark haired boy with gold-silver eyes complained, walking out to sit beside me. _

"_Hey, hey, Pitch! That's no way to talk to your sister," our mother called out, crossing her arms and made her way over to us. _

_Our mother was quite the beautiful girl. She had wavy blond hair, similar to mine, and bright blue eyes. Her hair was about mid length to her shoulders with silky short bangs in front of her forehead. She always had a bright smile on her face when she was in a happy mood. The one thing we, meaning my brother and I, feared about this angelic appearance of our mother. _

_She was the Lady of Time and one of the Guardians. So, both of us knew that we never got on her bad side because she would snap. Although, she had a very rare bad side. She rarely showed it to us, except for one time Pitch accidentally broke a window or something like that. _

"_Anna, what did I tell you about running outside in snow without a jacket?" my mother sighed deeply as she walked over to me and slipped a brown cape onto my neck and tied it loosely. She patted my shoulder and smiled her usual angel grin. "There we go." _

"_Hey, mommy, can Pitch and I go play with our friends?" I stared with big blue eyes symbolizing those of a puppy waiting for a treat or trying to beg for one. I held my gloved hands together with my usual adorable stare that worked every time. _

_She ruffled my hair and kept smiling as she nodded. "But don't go on the pond ice, Anna, Pitch! It's not safe to skate on!" _

"_Ok~!" I squealed with delight, tugging on my older brother's hand and dragged him along to the woods. _

_You may wonder who our friends I was referring to were. It was just a boy and his little sister, much like Pitch and I. We played around with each other a lot more and we became friends later on. _

_The older boy was about eighteen, the same age of my brother. He had short spiky like brown hair and shiny brown eyes, matching his hair. He had a really laidback personality and he loved to play games with us and his younger sister. _

_This boy's name was Jack. _

_His sister, Hannah, was about my age, eight. She had the same features of her brother except for her longer, straight hair. Besides that, she was basically a carbon copy of him, just as a girl. _

"_Oof!" I fell face first onto the ice and started sliding slowly in a circle. _

"_Haha… Anna, you're supposed to have one foot out and switch after each time. So, you glide like this!" Jack laughed as I fell down for the second time. He glided over slowly to me and bent down to my level. "Silly!" _

"_Hey, Anna, didn't mom tell you not to be on the pond ice?" Pitch's voice reminded me of my mother's warning as he just stood on the snow part of the pond. _

"_But I'm having fun!" I pouted, attempting to skate again as Jack skated backwards, and keeping a watchful eye on me to make sure I didn't fall again. _

"_Until it cracks and you fall through. Anna, you shouldn't be on there," Pitch wasn't letting up the concern ringing in his voice. He was beginning to get worried as his gold eyes shifted to a tiny crack making its way to the center of the ice. _

_Jack stopped where he was and lifted me up, holding me at his side. "Look, it's alright. I got her. Everything will be fine, Pitch." _

"_No, it isn't! Look! There's already a crack, Jack!" he began to panic as more cracks started to surface. _

"_But that's not even from us skating…" Jack looked puzzled as he slid off the ice and set me beside Pitch. Both brothers grabbed their little sisters' hands tightly and stared at the slightly cracked ice before us. _

"_Because it's… not…" I mumbled to myself quietly, beginning to get wide eyed. My grip on my brother's hand began to tighten. A strange and heavy aura made its way to me and began to send shivers down my spine. This wasn't your average cold shiver. It was a shiver of fear from something that shouldn't be here. _

_That's when something in my gut twisted. I felt something was wrong. Very, very wrong. And that something happened in the village. An evil presence was there. I could just sense it. _

"_Anna!" Pitch whipped his head around frantically at my sudden run back to the village. _

_That shiver and twist wasn't something that happened to me. I knew that… my mother was in trouble… _

_And that's when it all occurred in one bright flash. I knew one thing. I didn't remember anything afterwards. _

_X END FLASHBACK X_


	6. Behind His Motives

**A/N: I like how this story is going along. I didn't think that anyone would really read it but I was wrong then XD I'm sure everyone's wondering what happened to Anna's and Pitch's mother after that shocking ending. Well, you'll find out soon enough. And be on guard as a new villain makes their appearance very soon. It's when everyone least expects it so I won't even tell you when or give a heads up. Muahaha! I'll just leave it at there's more than one new villain but they all tie into two certain Guardians. What could that possibly mean? Uh oh! Guess you're gonna have to wait and see what it means! **

Chapter 6: Behind His Motives

When I returned back to the present, I found myself gripping my chest and breathing heavily. This wasn't the childhood memories that I was expecting. I was interpreting something along the lines of old friends, family, and good memories. But… now that I have the truth… it turns out my fake childhood was sugar-coated. My real childhood was nothing like how I pretended to live all these years.

I had old friends, which I didn't know were around much anymore. I finally had to stop contradicting myself about Pitch being my brother because, all along, he was. My mother looked exactly like me, just an older version of myself. But what had me still confused is the fact my father wasn't brought up. Could it somehow pertain to the ending of my memories in here?

I gripped the tube tighter and shifted my eyes to the clear afternoon sky. I was well convinced something major happened during then and since I couldn't remember it and my teeth didn't recall it; this meant someone did erase my memories of that day.

Not realizing if my mother was alive at all, there was only one person that would most likely remember what happened that day. Only one person could've remembered it.

My own brother.

I couldn't be sure that he'll lie to me. I couldn't be sure if what he says is the truth and I wouldn't be able to make sure with my memories. For all I know, he could know the truth but end up covering it up with all lies. I knew he was able to pull that type of stuff on me. But, regardless, I knew he had the truth. The only way for me to recover the rest of my childhood was actually talking with him.

Running out on the meadow like grass, I stopped in the center. I glared up at the clear blue sky and placed my container of my baby teeth into my bag where my sword was located. The gentle wind blew on my hair as I kept looking up, rolling my hands into small fists at my sides.

When I flew down from my spot onto the open sky, the sun started to fade into sudden dark clouds appearing. The wind picked up gradually as I kept flying down to the city.

He must be expecting me then. I thought.

Only he had to answers for my leftover questions. No one could tell me what happened those long years ago except for him. He probably knew things about our father I didn't. Even more about our mother and her disappearance, or so it seemed at the end of the memories.

When I made it down to the tower-filled city, I walked around as I looked for Pitch's hideout. Constantly turning my head right and left, I noticed someone I wasn't intending to find. I thought after all these years, I'd never see her again. But, I was wrong.

It was Madeline, my "foster" sister. She was walking with a brown jacket and baby blue knitted hat with knee high dark brown buckled boots. On her left, she was holding hands with a tall blond haired man. He was most likely her husband, as I noticed the silver diamond ring secured on her ring finger. Another ring, a plain gold looking one, was on top of her engagement ring.

I shifted my gold eyes to a pair of little twin girls running around them. Both of them had long brown hair, like their mother, and bright green eyes, like her father. Those two were very beautiful girls and must've been in their six or seven year old age. The cold stung at their cheeks, I could tell from the slight shade of pink growing onto their faces. But they didn't seem to mind. They were all excited to go somewhere.

"Madeline! Hey! Madeline, over-…!" I called out, smiling and waving.

My smile started to drop as I noticed her totally ignoring me. Her entire family did the same. It was almost like they couldn't hear me, which didn't make sense to me. I was hollering pretty loud for her to hear and yet, she didn't even acknowledge me. That wasn't Madeline. She wouldn't just ignore me ignorantly. She would at least wave "hi" to me.

I jumped over to her and stood in front. I waved my hand in front of the girl kneeling to tell her daughter something. "Hey, Madeline! It's me, Annalisa! God, I've missed you so-…"

The girl got up from her spot, still holding her husband's hand, and walked right through me. Her little twins did the same without any difficulty of someone clearly standing in front of them. They didn't see me. They didn't hear me.

I held my chest, breathing frantically. This… weird feeling. I didn't like it. My own "fake" sister walked right through me and the rest of her family did. It was like I didn't even… exist. That's when my eyes widened in fear at what I just realized.

They didn't believe in me. The Spirit of Christmas. Her own children, to my shock, didn't believe in me. I couldn't comprehend this correctly because the Madeline I used to know believed in every type of Guardian there was. Her range was unbelievably incredible and long. But now, she's reduced to not believing anymore and she passed that to her own kids.

I shook my head from my sudden daze and sighed, flying off.

No, I can't get distracted by something like this. I had to find Pitch and recover the rest of my memories. I couldn't worry about this situation right now.

* * *

"Hmm… I thought you would be coming," Pitch turned around from where he was standing and showing his cold silver eyes.

I stood a good foot away from him, crossing my arms. My gold eyes burning furiously at him as I spoke with an icy tone. "Where's mother?"

Pitch laughed loudly, as it echoed in the dark tunnel from the stone walls. He circled around me and kept his hands behind his back. "So it seems you are coming to your senses finally, Anna. I'm so glad my sister actually can actually acknowledge me as a brother."

Orange fire ignited in my right palm as I whipped my hand close to his face. "I will NEVER see you as a brother. I hope you realize that."

Another evil laugh escaped his pale lips as he turned his back from me. "Quite the contrary, little Anna. You seem to contradicting yourself, however. You wish for me to speak of what happened to our mother but yet, you won't see me as a brother when you know it's true."

"You best tell me, Pitch, or this whole hide out could be set ablaze with a quick flick of my fingers," my tone of voice began to grow with seriousness from each word. My fingers were set with a growing flame dancing freely with orange and streaks of red.

Pitch waved his index finger back and forth as he stared at me with a mischievous smirk. With a snap of his fingers, several red eyed beasts pierced the blackness of the dark. They all set their eyes on me with killing intent. "You want to know what happened to our mother. Hmm? It's quite simple. Observe the situation you've put yourself in. She was outnumbered."

My eyes began to have fear seep into them at the increasing amount of red eyes on me. I stepped back a few feet, my hands shaking nervously. "Are you saying someone killed her? But, how is that possible?"

"Someone? Haha… you think that someone just killed her for no purpose? What that person wanted to gain is becoming a Guardian themselves. Do you remember that Jack boy that we used to be around? The person behind our mother's death also went after him, too. He could sense that he was going to become a Guardian by the Man in the Moon. Therefore, he had to lessen the numbers of Guardians to make it an even fight," he explained, keeping his silver eyes on me as well as his other lurking shadows' red eyes on me, too.

"Wait! The Jack we used to be friends with… the Jack… seeing him as a Guardian… HE WAS THE JACK FROST I KNOW NOW!?" I exclaimed in shock, placing a hand on my forehead.

Finding out my past this late really was messing with my head. All this from finding out Pitch was my brother and the friend I had long ago was actually the one that became the Spirit of Winter was giving me a headache. I couldn't comprehend any of this because, somehow, I connected to everything I saw without knowing.

Pitch nodded and continued, crossing his arms. "If you're thinking I was the cause of her death, I wasn't. I would never kill the one that gave us life. I'm not that horrible of a person. I only eliminate those I see as an enemy, in which case, the Guardians always have been. I know she was one but back then, I wasn't turn into this Bogeyman nonsense. But what you need to realize is that our mother protected us from our own father. He was once a Guardian, from what she told me back when I was only five years old. She said that she'd never let him into our childhood because of his corruption into darkness. And that day it occurred was when I was with you and Jack on the pond. Remember when you sensed something?"

I nodded slowly, still trying to take this in and make full use of it.

"Well, that was our father you sensed. It was a very chilling feeling and I'm sure fear crept over to you when it happened. He could tell who were Guardians and those that were being in consideration in becoming a Guardian. So, like I said, he went after Jack when we left to find our mother. He made the ice break around his sister and that's when Jack saved her, switching places but that was also when the ice cracked entirely and pulled him under.

"I hope you realize what our mother did for you. She erased all of your memories by sending you into a long sleep. She used her time on you and causing you to end up turning back into a small child and placed you into the care of another family. When she did that, she abandoned me afterwards. Never saying if she'd come back or not. The only thing she told me is that she did her best to raise me good but she apologized as I became gifted with granting darkness and nightmares to every child around the world.

"She told me I would never become a Guardian. I had too much of anger, jealousy, and hatred for others that kept me back from my goal. Meanwhile," he slammed his fists against the brick wall full force and turned his hatred burning silver eyes to me. "YOU GOT TO BE ONE! SHE PRAISED YOU SO DEARLY BECAUSE SHE KNEW ONE OUT OF HER TWO CHILDREN WOULD SUCCEED AND BE THE ANGELIC CHILD SHE HOPED FOR!"

I slowly reached for my sword behind me. It began to slide out of its bag. "Maybe that's how it should be," I glared angrily at him. "Someone like you, even as my brother shouldn't be acknowledged as a Guardian or even believed in. You just bring chaos."

Pitch breathed in and exhaled lightly, laughing like a maniac. "Getting worked over such trivial things is pointless! I've already got the perfect plan in order from my succession. So, dwelling on the past shouldn't be worried about."

"Not unless I stop it."

Pitch began to laugh his evil chuckle and flicked his index finger, sending me flying out of his hide out with brute force. Then, a wide grin stretched along his face as he pet one of his nightmares slowly. "I believe I will win this battle when you see my newest creation. I'll become unstoppable that even YOU won't be able to fight."

That's when IT had the same creepy smile appear along its pale face. The short black hair hid its eyes as IT began to laugh alongside Pitch.

I'm **ready** Guardians. Are _**you**_?


	7. Black Snow?

**A/N: Who could our mystery "IT" is? More importantly, why did Pitch say that it would be hard for Anna to fight IT? What could his new creation do? And what about the person responsible of their mother's disappearance? Who's behind that? So many questions that Anna doesn't know answers to. But one thing she doesn't suspect is the identity of the mysterious figure. Who could it possibly be? **

Chapter 7: Black Snow?

"EVERYONE!" I yelled hoarsely, running in the center of the Guardians gathered in the snow pile outside of North's workshop. My breathing was heavy and raspy but I didn't care right now. What was important was the plan my brother had in store for them. "Guys…" I huffed, putting my hands on my knees. "It's… Pitch…"

"Pitch?" Jack asked in alarm as did the other members as they ran over to me.

I raised my head to face them, still breathing raggedly. "Yes. He's planning something against us. He said that he has a new plan to win successfully. I don't know what it is but that's all he said before he knocked me out. When I ran out of there, I heard two people laughing. One was Pitch, definitely. But for the other, it wasn't a familiar laugh at all."

"What were ze doing there, Anna?" North asked sternly. I could tell he was slightly angry at my action of taking off to Pitch's lair but his voice was also hinting curiosity.

This was a conflicting time for me. Having all this stuff thrown at me involving my past was confusing me and making me conflicted in the right or wrong ways of handling the situation. I couldn't simply tell them I was Pitch's sister. They would for sure treat me like him, considering me as an evil person. I don't even think Jack knows about it, although he remembers his past. Maybe that never was included in his memories from his baby teeth? I think the only one that could possibly know would be Toothiana for the reason she held onto my teeth all these years. But still… I couldn't just say that as an excuse, even though it was the reason.

I bit my lip nervously as North awaited for his answer. His blue eyes kept staring down at me, never leaving their sight. He wanted an answer and he wanted that now.

"I-I… I was planning on seeing what he was trying to plan against us…" I lied smoothly but my face was rejecting that thought as my scared look never left.

North's eyebrow popped up and kept staring at me with disbelief. "So, you went to spy on him and got nothing out of it? Not buying it."

I bit my lip harder, enough to probably start drawing blood from it. My palms started to sweat on my knees as I kept talking, my voice shaking nervously. "Well… um… yeah but he caught me."

When I looked up at North, I saw that he was still in disbelief at my lying statements. But the others around me seemed to buy it, probably except for Jack. I knew I would have to break the news to him first. His eyes were filled with the same action as North's.

North sighed and motioned Toothiana, Sandman, and Bunnymund to come with him back to the workshop. "Well… I will take your word as honesty, Anna, but if you lie at all, you can never be seen to be trusted again. Come, guys, we must think of how to approach this issue at hand."

Everyone left behind North except for Jack. He just stared at me with bewilderment and disbelief. He tossed his staff behind his right shoulder and sighed, walking over to me. "That wasn't good to lie, Anna. I could sense it the entire time and so did North."

I covered my face and slumped into the pile of white snow. Tears started to flow from my eyes and seep through the wedges of my fingers. "I know, Jack. But what would you do if people would begin to hate you for the truth? Sometimes… lying is better than the truth in some cases."

"It would depend," he spoke quietly, sitting across from me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Is the truth something you can't speak of?"

I nodded, still covering my face with my palms. "I'm afraid, Jack. I can't tell them the truth. After finding out my past, I can't bear it."

Jack took his hand and touched my cheek lightly. My hands moved slightly to peek at what he was doing. Both of our eyes looked at each other with concern and comfort.

"If has anything to do with Pitch, it's okay. I'll be here for you. You can tell me."

My crying became harder than before and when I spoke, my speech was muffling and hard to understand. "Jack, I found out that I'm his sister! I didn't want to believe it but my memories proved to me that he is! I don't want to believe it at all!"

A few minutes went by and I could just sense that Jack was a little taken back from my outburst. He probably didn't want to believe that one either because of such a warm-hearted girl being related to such a cold-hearted boy is something very difficult to comprehend and understand. He'll probably never understand how we suddenly became brother and sister with completely opposite traits. I'll still probably never understand it, either.

Finally, Jack was able to do at least something. He wrapped his cold arms around me and hugged me close. He whispered quietly, stroking my hair. "I'm sure you're confused in what to do and I understand that you can't say this straightforwardly. I won't tell anyone. I promise. That'll be up to you but for right now, I can say that I'll support you."

That's when my crying got harder as I gripped onto his blue jacket. "Thank you, Jack…" **(A/N: sign possibly?!)**

* * *

All this stuff was getting to my head. This entire day was full of things I didn't know and very stressful for me. All the memories of my past and the mysterious plan my brother, Pitch, is planning. I can't say that I'm not on edge about this. I don't know what he's trying to do.

North stroked his beard over and over, wondering of what to do. What the action we should take. All the Guardians surrounded into a circle with worried faces.

"Now that Pitch has grown stronger, I'm afraid we might be at a defeat," North sighed, still stroking his beard slowly and looked at all of us.

"You can't possibly just give in to Pitch's new strength like that! We can still win!" Bunnymund complained, pointing with his boomerang to no one. "We have a new Guardian, anyways! We can't just sit and do nothing, North!"

"I understand that, Bunnymund, however! We don't know what his plan is. He could be outnumbering us some way shape or form and we don't even know it. Plus, I know we can protect our believing children but if we were to slip once, he would take that as an opportunity and do what he did last time. Then, we would be tremendously weak. And the fact that Jack now has believers, we could seriously be at risk this time," North explained thoroughly to Bunnymund and the rest of us.

Toothiana's lavender eyes widened and she fluttered around us excitingly and hopeful. She pointed her index finger to the moon slowly rising in the air, speaking a little too fast for some. "Wait! We can have another help us out. North, do you remember the one that protected Man in the Moon long ago?"

At that very moment, North's face lit up as excitement filled his light blue eyes. He snapped his fingers as he strolled back and forth. "Yes! We can always ask him!"

I cocked my head to one side. Clearly, everyone, even Jack, understood what North and Toothiana were saying except for me. I was sitting there with a puzzled face plastered on me, trying to comprehend their exciting remarks.

"Um…" I held up one hand to silence them and bring their attention to the confused teenage girl. "Who are we referring to here? Sorry. I'm kind of lost in this conversation…"

"Nightlight!" they all said in unison, pointing to the full moon illuminating its light on us.

"Who?" I was still in my state of confusion and they only made it worse when they pointed impatiently at the moon. "That's the Man in the Moon, right?"

"Incorrect!" North immediately shouted with his heavy Russian accent and pointed one of his swords a little TOO close to my face.

I blinked twice before taking my hand and pushing his sword gently away from my face. "Um… watch where you're pointing that at!"

North twirled his swords behind his back and placed them in their designated holders. Then, he turned his head to me with a serious stare. "Long ago, there was a boy named Nightlight who watched over the Man in the Moon. He was the protector of him. They said that he banished Pitch away and still looks after the Man in the Moon to this day. He doesn't speak much and you wouldn't think he's a boy of light but he is. The purest amount of light you'll ever find in this world. But since then, no one's actually seen him."

* * *

How come I've never heard of this mystery person named Nightlight until now? I didn't realize that someone protected the Man in the Moon. And the fact that North said he looked like he was darkness but he wasn't. So, one boy was filled with nothing but pure light? One boy that was able to banish my brother so easily without any trouble. He must be very powerful then.

I kept thinking about this boy named Nightlight on my back home. I was too lazy to fly like usual so, I was just walking and taking the woods as my shortcut. Freshly fallen snow covered the trees and ground. It was like the snow was a decoration through my adventure in the woods. I've never seen it this gorgeous before.

But as I began to walk further and further through the decorated woods, something caught my eye. Small pieces of black ash or black snow started to fall onto my jacket. It slowly began to stain the white ground turning it into dirt color.

I put my hand out to catch some of this sudden black snow into my palm. I brought this closer to me as I stopped walking and examined it. This couldn't be from Jack Frost, that's for sure. He couldn't produce snow this corrupted. This dark. This type of gloomy color. This was something completely abnormal because even if he could, this wasn't how snow was supposed to appear.

"Like what you see, missy?" a cold and sinister masculine voice called out. The voice began to ring with an evil chill to it.

Then, a dark figure made its way out with pale bare feet. The dark black snow began to fall silently, building the suspense of the mysterious person before me.

At first, I thought it was Pitch from the voice. And now, my other guess was the boy named Nightlight that made his appearance but it couldn't be. The sweat shirt color… the pants color… the staff color… the hair color and style… the eyes…

That's when my eyes widened in shock. I recognized these characteristics. The clothing was all similar to someone I knew. The white hair and blue eyes… they only belonged to one person I knew directly. Even the wooden staff… it was the one belonging to one of my friends.

"Jack?" I began to stutter in shock. I watched Jack fly back home and waving. So… why is he back suddenly?

The boy tapped one of the trees with his staff, watching black ice appear around it. Then, he walked out of the shadow area, revealing his true colors.

He had a dark black hoodie with gold like swirls located on the top part. He had dark midnight black pants with grey straps attached to the bottom portion of it. Instead of the blue eyes, his eyes were filled with a luscious gold like mine and spiked black hair, in the style of Jack's. And the staff wasn't its usual style. The wood part was normal but instead of bright blue lines stretched across, it was a dark gold with a black tip at the end of the curve part.

The boy had a wide sinister grin stretching across his pale face as he stared at me with his gold eyes. "Hmm... confused, aren't we? Why, yes, I'm Jack."

"You can't possibly be him! You have dark features! Why do you look so much like him?" I gasped in shock at the huge resemblance. He may have different coloring but he had the same structure of Jack.

"A figment of your imagination, perhaps? Or maybe… this is what's become of him. Maybe I am the real Jack Frost, consumed by darkness," his smirk never leaving his face as he walked over beside me. He reached his pale fingers out to me and stroked my cheek. The coldness he had was the equal amount of Jack's; sending spine chilling cold down me.

I smacked his hand away from my face and glared angrily at him. "Jack Frost would never become evil!"

The fake Jack came up from behind me and crossed my arms in his grasp, releasing a small scream from his pressure onto my arms. "How would you know, hmm?"

"Because he's a good friend of mine! He'd never betray his friends!" I hissed coldly at the imposter.

"But you're W-R-O-N-G!" he whispered softly into my ear. Cold air nipped at my ear when he continued to speak quietly. "Didn't you hear that he betrayed his friends for his own selfish memories? It cost them dearly for his mistake. They all began to hate him. What's to say he won't do it again?"

"I do!" another voice projected loudly as the figure came down and hit the fake Jack away from me. This voice I couldn't quite understand or recognize. Even the appearance I couldn't comprehend.

All I knew was that this person was a male. A boy around my age, or the appearance of me at least. But I was afraid that this boy was darkness itself.

The black outfit with white circular gems on the shoulders and chest area made me concerned. He had a long strip of hair on his right side and with snow white hair. He had almost grey like eyes with a weapon symbolizing that of a spear of some sort.

_He doesn't speak much and you wouldn't think he's a boy of light but he is. The purest amount of light you'll ever find in this world._

Remembering North's words, a relieving smile appeared across my face as I looked at the white haired boy.

"Nightlight!"


	8. Old Friend

**A/N: Uh-oh! A Dark Jack? What could this mean? Is this Pitch's creation? If it is, how many more does he have and does he have one for all the Guardians? And just when things were about to get bad for Anna with confusion, Nightlight made his appearance! And you all get a snippet of a very well known girl! I'll give you a hint! She is the girl obsessed with flowers and such. It's a rather short chapter, too, but the other chapter will be longer. This was more of an introduction chapter of a new opponent that can prove to be an obstacle for the Guardians.**

* * *

Chapter 8: Old Friend

"Hmm… this shall be an interesting discovery for Pitch to use for his plans. The almighty Nightlight, protector of the Moon, correct?" a wide grin appeared across the Dark Jack's pale face as he jumped back up with a swirl of wind.

Nightlight, this time, didn't speak as he pulled me up gently to my feet. His eyes were that of very bright silver with an illuminating glow. Then, he turned his head to the enemy in front of us. Dark Jack kept his imitating glare at us with his wide smirk still present. He gripped his wooden staff tighter and leaned himself on top of it slightly.

"Oh, come now! Annalisa and I were just having a _**friendly **_conversation, now weren't we? I'm trying to protect her from those liars Manny* calls 'Guardians.' She doesn't deserve to be lied to," he shifted his hold eyes onto me with a softer gaze. He held out one pale hand in front of us with the same gentle look. "If you come with us, you'd be treated better than what you have."

I shook my head instantly, without thinking about his proposal. "I'm fine where I am and they're not liars. If anyone is," my glare became harder set onto him. "It would be YOU."

A cold chuckle echoed from him as he disappeared briefly. The wind started to pick up as the black snow became harder and made vision difficult. A cold hand gripped my mouth roughly while the other tugged me back against something solid.

"Me? Ha! You think that?" his cold voice sent shivers down my spine as he brought his face close to my ear with a wide grin. He shifted his cold gold eyes onto Nightlight as he brought his free hand to my neck, frost building up around it. "Make one move and I'll guarantee you'll see the greatest ice angel sculpture ever known."

I began to squirm in his iron grip, trying to break free. But I couldn't budget at all. It didn't help much with his hand covered onto my mouth, keeping me from calling Jack or anyone else. I don't even comprehend why I had to go back to a selfish and evil brother after it was clear we DIDN'T get along at all. We may have when we were little but now… we can't even say hi to each other without snarling our teeth at each other.

Just then, Nightlight was using several gestures for me to try and figure out. Guess North was right about being silent all the time. And I didn't even understand any of this sign language stuff he was trying to explain to me.

But I gave it a minute before I actually understood his ramble. The frequent gesture of his hands were telling me to break away from him and as soon as I did, I have to duck onto the ground.

With a quick nod with reassurance, that's when I acted.

I slammed my foot strike right in the center of his foot with a heavy force. It was enough for him to let go in pain as he gritted his teeth angrily at me.

I began to run away from him and ducked like what Nightlight was telling me.

"WHAT? YOU THINK THAT THIS BEAM OF LIGHT IS ENOUGH TO DESTROY ME? HA! COME AT ME!" he laughed mechanically with insanity, holding his hands out with his brown staff in his right hand. Before he was hit by Nightlight's beam of light, he shifted his evil gold eyes at me with a creepy wink. "We'll be meeting again, Miss Frost. Don't think I'll be gone forever!"

Then, with a quick bright flash, his gold eyes and midnight black hair disappeared out of my sight. Slowly dimming, so did the light that engulfed him.

I ran my hands through my hair in fear and panic. That… that… fake Jack was going to come back. He was going to come after me again like he did today! And when he does, I don't know if anyone would be able to protect me. Why does he want to drag me back to Pitch? We had a huge argument and near death fight against each other and now my brother wants me back? What in the world is he planning and more importantly… what does he want with me?

"If you're thinking constantly about this mess today, don't think much of it," Nightlight managed to speak out as we slowly walked back to my place. He promised me that he'd walk me back to my home, since Dark Jack could make another appearance any time.

"But…" I stuttered in panic, still walking aside him. "That fake Jack said he's going to take me back to my brother. I don't know what he's trying to plan and what he wants with me, either."

Nightlight twirled his black spear and sighed, stopping where he was and stared at the Moon. "I can see why Man in the Moon summoned me to help you Guardians out. Pitch may have a greater advantage this time. And last time I fought him alone, he wasn't this strong. You guys might need to get aid from his daughter, Mother Nature."

"Wait a minute! My brother has a daughter?! I'm an Aunt? WHAT?!" I exclaimed in shock, almost falling onto the ground. "WHEN? WHEN ON EARTH DID THIS HAPPEN AND MOTHER NATURE? SHE'S ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL BEINGS!? HOW?!"

Nightlight laughed softly, barely any emotion was put into it from his concern of Pitch's newfound strength. He turned to face me; his white hair blew in the wind. "As for now, I cannot explain much of this to you, as you are to figure it out yourself. Until then, I will not explain any of it."

"But!" I tried again to see if he'd listen but he silenced me by putting his pale index finger on my bottom lip.

"You'll found out in time. Until then, you cannot find out from others," was all he said and disappeared with a slow flash of light.

There I stood by myself. I sat there and stared at the Moon who granted me these gifts. Nearly screaming my head off, I glared angrily at the Moon. "WHY? WHY DON'T YOU EVER TELL ME ANYTHING!? WHY?!"

I took my sword behind my back and threw it a couple of feet away from me, covering my eyes and crying.

I still didn't know who I was. I thought my secrets of my life were all revealed. But now…

It turns out I still had many more to figure out.

In little time, that is.

* * *

"Ah! My beautiful daughter here to visit! How have you been, dearest?" Pitch turned around, clapping his hands together to the teenage girl standing before him.

The girl had emerald green eyes with long flowing black hair, like his. She had a very fair complexion with no marks or anything to ruin them. The girl wore a short green like dress covered in roses and vines intertwining with her dress. A headband, made from twine and pale yellow carnations, wrapped around the center of her head. Her arms were decorated with a green vine design, wrapping around her entire arm as well as her legs. Meanwhile, her toenails and fingernails were painted with a brown like color with shiny green specks.

She sat with crossed legs on top of a long, thick green vine with a grimacing face. Her eyelids lowered, uninterested in this conversation with her father. "No… you're creepy Nightmares summoned me."

Pitch clapped his hands together and laughed in amusement. "Yes, yes, now I remember. I've summoned you here for a quest something that I need help with."

The girl's black eyebrow rose slightly as she crossed her arms together. "In which?"

He glared evilly at her and smiled deviously. "The Guardians. Each one of them must fall and the only way I can accomplish my goal is by having them distracted by something."

The girl huffed angrily, rolling her green eyes. "Ugh! So, what are we talking about? Earthquake? Thunderstorm? Tornado wrecking each of their hideouts? What?"

Another cold laugh escaped him and he looked at her. "All good options but no. There's just a certain couple that I need to get out of the way. Meaning you're nemesis, Jack Frost. I know how much you hate him, Iris, dear. He ruined an entire area of your plants and trees. This could an excellent chance for you to gain revenge."

Iris flickered her eyes onto her father for a moment and began to smile a tiny smirk. She shrugged, holding onto the wall of the doorway before leaving, her grin getting wider with evil intention. "I'll see what I can do."

"And for you, my Dark Jack… I see we have another Guardian to face, correct?" Pitch turned his head slowly to his new black sand creation.

Dark Jack bowed in front of his master and responded. "Indeed. It is Nightlight."

A huge evil grin spread out onto Pitch's face as he clawed the cement wall.

"A rematch I suppose, _**old friend**_."

* * *

**A/N: Uh-Oh! Things are slowly starting to get rather intense here! And what's this? MOTHER NATURE MADE HER APPEARANCE! Oh boy! Jack, RUN! You're about to see the wrath of Mother Nature soon! Why can't you be a normal person without interfering with others?! Note to self: Never get on Mother Nature's bad side for various reasons next chapter…**


	9. Iris

**A/N: Well… Obviously Jack's going to get a beating from Mother Nature. But didn't Nightlight say they would need her help against Pitch? How could they possibly do that if she is Pitch's daughter? Is she a good and reliable person to aid their fight? She IS helping Pitch, after all… And if she does join, Jack and Iris don't have a great friendship, as you're about to see. Oh dear! How will this turn out? O_o**

* * *

Chapter 9: Iris

"Achoo!" I nearly went through four and a half boxes of tissues from sneezing non-stop.

Turns out, that day when Jack wanted to do a snowball fight with me, I was right about one thing. Getting sick from being out in the cold too long. And I told him I would blame him if he got me sick from all that freaking snow.

"Ugh!" I began to sneeze again, rubbing my nose with another tissue. My nose was beet red from constantly rubbing it and so were my cheeks. My entire face was flushed as a pale white. "I'm going to get him for this! This is the last thing I need on my plate!"

None of the Guardians knew I was sick and at home, so they'll start to freak out within a few hours or less. I was supposed to attend some meeting with them to figure out how we're going to approach Pitch's new plan. But, clearly, I can't do that when I feel horrible!

Here I was. While everyone was at the meeting, I was stuck at home, taking medicine and covering myself with tons of blankets. Shivers on and off like crazy. Consistent sneezing and coughing. And a freaking sore throat that keeps lingering even with cough drops and such!

"Well…" I sighed, slowly getting up and moved myself into my kitchen to make some hot tea. I scanned around the room to see where I put the bag of tea and found it within one of my wooden cabinets. Grabbing that and a white mug, I put one of the tea bags on the counter while I heated up some of the water. "At least I don't have to worry much about Dark Jack or Pitch. I hope. Then again…" I lowered my head, slapping the counter; stressed. "He never leaves me alone!"

A small feminine voice rang through the walls out of nowhere. I opened both of my eyes from closing them briefly and slowly hid behind one wall; skimming the room for potential danger.

I always locked my doors to my home and for someone else to be in here couldn't be possible. My home was too high up for anyone else to get in, excluding Jack. He always figured out ways into sneaking up on me and freaking the heck out of me. But that was the thing. It was a girl laughing, not a boy. So, it couldn't be him.

Cautiously, I walked into the living room where my fireplace continued to burn with small crackles of sparks. The wooden floor beneath me began to creak loudly as I continued to walk.

"Hiya!" the same voice chimed out, a sudden pressure made its way onto my right shoulder.

Falling onto my back in panic, I stared wide-eyed at a teenage looking girl before me. She almost looks like a nature freak or something because of all the plant designs and green vines around her. But what caught my eye was her long black hair she had and the piercing green eyes staring intently down at me.

Was this strange girl evil? Because she sure looks like it!

For a second, her nose twitched and she directed her small thumb to my kitchen. "You should probably turn that off. I can tell it's boiling over."

"Wha...OH CRAP!" I ran in a flash to the stove that was burning with boiling water. I began fiddled around with the black notches to turn the stove off while the mysterious girl just stood in the door way. I could feel her cold eyes set on me. And that wasn't a good thing.

When I finally turned off the burning flame, I turned around and eyed the girl with the same stare she gave me.

"Ah… now we can talk…" she exhaled with relief and stretched her arm across her chest with a smile.

I pulled out one of my silver knives from the drawer beside me and glared coldly at her. My gold eyes sparked with anger. "Who are you and who sent you?"

She turned to look back at me and her eyelids lowered, almost like switching to another side of her. She flicked her wrist towards me and several green vines spiked through the floor, tangling my arms and legs together. This sudden attack made me drop the weapon in my hands and basically left me defenseless at the moment with constricting pressure around me.

The girl walked over to me slowly, placing a finger on my face, her green eyes burning with a new emotion than before.

Rage.

"Tell me…" her voice began to twist into a silent hiss. "Where is Jack Frost?"

"Why do you need to know?" I growled angrily at her, trying to break free from her vines.

A cold laugh escaped her lips as she skipped into a circle. "Haha! Why you ask? It's quite simple…" she outstretched her arms with a smirk. "Mother Nature has to have a word with him, that's why!"

"Mother…Nature…?" my eyes widened in shock at the girl before me. This girl was the one of the strongest spirits the world has to offer. She was the one Nightlight was telling me about. About having her join our side. But… this girl… she was Pitch's daughter. That means… she was… my NIECE!? Then, who the heck was the mother then? "YOU'RE MY FREAKING NEICE?!"

The girl released a deep sigh, crossing her arms and pouted. "Unfortunately."

"Ah… I'd figure you'd be back!" Jack's voice echoed as he somehow snuck into the window on our right side. Snow doused his white hair and clothing as he hopped onto the wooden flooring. He rubbed his hair briefly, having small snowflakes fall off onto the ground. Jack shifted his eyes over to mine and laughed like it was no problem facing Mother Nature.

Jack hopped over to my side and one by one, froze each vine. "Well… seems you got yourself in a mess."

"Jack! You're supposed to be with the rest of the Guardians!" I complained as I was freed from the green vines and jumped beside him, glaring.

He popped one eyebrow at me, grinning. "And you weren't?"

I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. "No, because I'm freaking sick from YOU!"

Jack scratched the back of his head, lightly blushing and apologized. "Sorry 'bout that. I wasn't intending you to get sick. It was for old times' sake."

Then, he shifted his crystal eyes onto the nature girl in front of us. Both Jack and I could notice the snarling she was presenting in front of us. Her green eyes began to burn like a flame; enraged. She was ready to release that rage, too, and man! If she's as powerful as I think she is, she might end up destroying miles of buildings.

"Iris." Jack's eyes suddenly switched to irritation.

"Jack." Iris's upper lip curled at saying his name with such ice.

"Long time no see, right? I believe it was about a couple hundred years that I destroyed some of your forests," a smug grin spread across his face, leaning against his staff forward.

Iris tried to suppress her growing anger for Jack by attempting a "sweet" smile. She clapped her hands together, laughing with no emotion. "Haha… yes. I believe so. How could I forget about that?"

"Don't tell me you're still angry about that. We should let old troubles slide and restart," his eyes mocking silently that only she could see. She began to shake with her now visible rage. "Then again…" his bright smile switched to a wide evil smirk. Jack tap his staff on some of the vines left over from when she tangled me and frost swirled around it. He lifted his head up and glared at her. "I kind of prefer not doing that, however."

I nudged Jack's arm and whispered angrily. "Jack! Why would you irritate Mother Nature? Are you freaking insane?!"

Jack gave me a toothy grin and shrugged. "Just a tad bit."

Well, it seems my house will be a wreck after this. I mean, you got two of the most powerful spirits relating with each other who also have a very, very bad rivalry thing going on. Mother Nature, or known as Iris, would be reckless and destroy everything in her way. Jack would end up freezing everything and cause a tremendous blizzard.

Iris laughed coldly and vines started to pierce through the floor yet again from behind her. Her black hair flew into her face, making it difficult to see her cat-like eyes. "Let's get one thing clarified here," she tilted her head to the side to meet my eyes. "You asked a question of who sent me, correct? Let me answer it for you."

She shot her eyes open, locked onto me with a wide grin. "Pitch did. And I hope you realize that the war you Guardians are getting yourselves into is beyond your victory. Because you're going to be one short when I'm done with you!"

"Wonderful!" I hissed, dodging oncoming vines with sharp thorns being shot at Jack and I. "Just flipping wonderful! You just HAD to go and tick off Mother Nature, Jack!"

"What? You're saying if I didn't mention anything to her that she'd let me slide? Sorry, missy, but our feuding goes far beyond the apologizing state," Jack smirked, holding his brown staff close to his chest.

"EXACTLY MY POINT!" I yelled as we leaned our backs side by side. We were being cornered by a moving circle of vines lashing out occasionally at us.

Iris levitated onto one of her vines and her eyebrows rose. "A lover's quarrel, possibly? At a time like this?"

I whipped my head to see her and was ready to bite her head off. "OF COURSE NOT!"

She squinted her green eyes on me, her eyelids lowering as she pursed her lips. "Ah! Well that's good… I would HATE to have Jack Frost in my family."

Jack turned his head around to face me, pouting. "Family? Don't tell me I've been angering one of your family members, besides Pitch."

"Well…" I tried to explain but sighed, shaking my head. "That's a story I'm trying to comprehend still."

"Silence!" Iris raised her hand and glared evilly down at the two of us. Her eyes burning with strong hatred against Jack and even more with me. "Pitch asked me to do one task and I'll be sure to accomplish that. By destroying you, Jack Frost. Without you, the Guardians don't stand a chance against my father."

Jack began to smile and leaned again on his staff. One hand was on his staff while the other grabbed my own hand, still staring up at Iris with amusement. "Oh really? Destroy me? Seems interesting… Come on, Iris. I dare you to."

Iris gritted her teeth in anger, her body trembling with sky rocketing rage boiling at her fingertips. She lifted up one hand and slowly brought out her index finger so it was pointing directly at Jack. Quietly, she was counting up to three.

"Okay, Anna, you might not be amused by this but hold on," I heard Jack whispered quietly to me, not taking his eyes off of Iris for a moment. He gripped my hand tighter as a sign to be prepared what was going to happen.

"Wait what are you…" I whispered back but time wasn't in my favor. Because it all happened before he could respond to my puzzlement.

"As much as you want to do it, Iris, I can see your hand shaking," Jack ignored my question as he kept provoking Iris. "Why is that, hmm? Maybe you weren't cut out for the bad person. You only listen to your father because he's the only one that you believe cares about you. But does he? You should consider a much lighter side than what you're on now," was all he left it at for an enraged Iris to start lashing out.

"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY LIFE!" Iris began to lash out with fury, more and more vines and thorns pierced through the floor. Lightning strikes began to flash into the room with a loud ring after each one. "YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! I COULD ATTACK YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW IF I WANTED TO! HOW DARE YOU ANGER MOTHER NATURE!"

"Okay! Now! Hold on, Anna!" Jack yelled back as he gripped onto me in a hug and cracked out one of the windows.

We were falling a good few feet before Jack had the sense to start flying through the wind current. And once he did, he went as fast as possible to out run Iris before she caught up with them. But back in the amidst, as I continued to hold on to Jack, I watched in horror of my home being destroyed.

Being so flustered at everything, I didn't even think about flying with my wings. I just let Jack continue to fly us as far as possible. At this point, I didn't even notice myself starting to soak Jack's hoodie with my tears forming.

I just wanted this entire war beginning to end. I wanted my unsolved problems to be solved. I wanted all the secrets kept from me to be revealed.

Sometimes, I wish I never saw my past.

Because… eventually…

It would only bring chaos and betrayal not for just me but everyone else around me.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sure everyone's all like... 'WHEN ARE JACK AND ANNA GOING TO BE ALL LOVESICK AND STUFF?!' I know! In my other stories, I tend to get overly excited with the romance and end up presenting it WAY too early. Therefore, all I can say is that there will be signs in some chapters but its not going to be very straight forward yet. So, their "love" won't be actually acknowledged by each other for a few more chapters but the Guardians will be seeing it sooner and question themselves on it. But the one thing I can say about it is that a flashback will question either Jack or Anna and how they claimed that they were just 'friends' but are slowly being confused if that was really the case. (Won't say who sees that flashback but it'll be soon!) :3**


	10. Lingering Shadow

**A/N: Aww! I feel so bad for both Iris and Anna. We're slowly diving into Iris' life and her conflicting choice. While Anna on the other side is having a horrible time. Having an adopted family when her sister doesn't believe in her, her brother is Pitch, Jack isn't responding to her apology still, her real mother disappeared mysteriously, her father is unknown to her, and now, she doesn't have a home! Ah! I feel so cruel for writing it that way but when Anna makes it through the dark tunnel, there'll be a bright light at the end of it. :) And this is the ten chapter mark! Woot! Only like 20 chapters left to write or more (still deciding if I want to go longer or not XD )**

* * *

Chapter 10: Lingering Shadow

Another home of mine was destroyed. I couldn't ever go back and all my left over memories back there were gone. They disappeared along with the ruble left of my house. The only surviving thing I had at the time were my baby teeth Toothiana gave me a couple days ago. Other than that, nothing else survived, not even my weapon. My sword that Manny gave to me those long nights ago.

"Anna, it's going to be okay," Jack spoke softly, looking up at me with his hands on my arms. His blue eyes filled up with sorrow at my loss. They were also very gentle and sincere as he could manage. He really felt bad about what happened.

After our frantic flee from Iris' wrath, we flew to the closest place for safety. North's place. It was the closest we get to with little time. And all the Guardians were in their meeting when we arrived. Most of them questioned what happen and why we weren't here for their meeting. North was a little dumbfounded at Iris' attack but understood what it must be for me. Nightlight stood beside North and Bunnymund with his usual quiet voice but his eyes told me he was concerned. Out of all of the Guardians, the one that came to comfort me a lot was Tooth.

I pushed Jack away from me and blew up in front of them, tears streaming down my face. "No. You don't understand! All the left over memories I had from my other life were there! They're gone now! That place was like a safe haven for me! I could think peacefully, to figure out all the questions surrounding my life! You guys don't understand at all! I have no home now!"

Jack was going to come over again but Tooth gave him a quick shake to her head. So, he stood back and let Tooth come over, hugging me.

Tooth stroked my hair slowly and whispered as the rest of the Guardians kept their eyes on me. "You say we don't understand, Annalisa, but we do. We all had something we lost. But we all are family to each other. We all lost our 'past' lives and although we can never get them back, we cherish our new lives. It'll be alright."

Realizing my constant feuding was getting nowhere, I let my anger and frustration exit as I returned Tooth's hug. I buried my face away from the rest of the group, still crying. "I'm sorry. I'm just… a little confused of what to do."

"Then, don't be. Face this way," she smiled softly as she twirled me around to face everyone. I was going to question why I was suddenly turned around but when Sandman began to form a ball of sand in his palms.

"Wait a min-…! Ngh…" I tried to protest against them but I was instantly knocked out from the gold sand thrown at my face. Right when it hit, I fell back into a deep sleep with someone catching me.

**No POV**

"SANDY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Jack suddenly began to become angered at Sandman's action while he held Anna in his arms. His staff balanced in his right hand with the teen girl still in his hold.

_She needed it. She's been too stressed and needs to rest a few hours. _Sandman replied with his sand symbols flashing across his head with a tiny smile.

"Yes, Jack. She really needs to stand to relax. She's been through too much all in a few days," Tooth and North explained at the same time. Both of them shared a brief laugh at their amazing unison talk and turned back to face Jack and the passed out Anna.

"BUT STILL!" Jack yelled, setting Anna against the white wall and turned to face the group. He waved his hand to the side and tapped his staff on the ground occasionally as he spoke. "She totally didn't expect it! You guys could've at least warned her! And she almost hit the dang floor from being knocked out!"

This time, Bunnymund got to speak in this sudden argument Jack was picking. He pointed his boomerang at Jack, walking over to him with serious green eyes. "Don't be so uptight about this, mate. It's not like we're going to hurt her. Jeez! You've been extremely overprotective of her lately!"

Tooth and North shifted their eyes on each other for a moment as they giggled quietly. They were quite curious as to why Jack was acting this way lately. It was very amusing to watch but very, very interesting at the same time. They were starting to think of several reasons behind his protectiveness and one would be extremely obvious.

Jack's face had a light shade of pink stained onto his face. He stared at Bunnymund, gripping his staff harder and brought his face closer to him. "I'm not. I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't get herself hurt from everything going on."

"And your blush explains that? You happened to always be there when she's about to get in trouble with either Pitch or Iris and at the perfect timing. Tell me that isn't a sign," Bunnymund turned his head to the laughing Tooth, North, and Sandman with a wide smirk at his last sentence.

North shrugged with a jolly Russian laugh. "Who knows? But I think it may be, Bunny."

"Wait, what?! What sign? What may be? WHAT?!" Jack began to get all flustered, his face turning even redder at the now laughing foursome in front of him. They just kept staring at him with a huge grin and continued to laugh at his blushing face.

Nightlight, being the only one not talking, stood beside the Guardians. He was laughing just not to be heard. He had more important matters to tend to than watch everyone torture the almighty Jack Frost. Like watch over Anna to make sure she didn't suffer any trauma from falling.

But when he shifted his eyes over to the spot she was at, Anna wasn't there. She was gone!

Nightlight began to run over to the spot and constantly turning his head; looking for the angel girl that was now missing. Shortly after he ran, everyone had their eyes on him; confused.

"Nightlight, what's w-…" Jack tried to ask, regaining his pale color again but went into high alert that Anna was missing. He was having a major panic attack at this because he just set her down for only about five minutes. Now, she was missing!

"Thank… you SO much, Guardians! I owe you guys one for making my job a whole lot easier!" a dark voice echoed through the entire workshop. It had a dark feel to it and a masculine voice similar to that of Jack.

Everyone thought it was Pitch's voice but they didn't realize that there was another villain at their hands. The one that no one knew about except for Annalisa. And when Jack looked up at the person who owned the voice, his blue eyes shot open in shock.

Dark Jack walked out of the shadows with a smug grin on his face, having his gold vined staff in one hand and the other holding a small sleeping girl across his shoulders.

"Anna!" everyone gasped in shock as they saw her in the hands of the Dark Jack.

Dark Jack popped one of his black eyebrows and laughed coldly. He set Anna down on the huge metal globe and observed her. "This is what they call you? Anna? Hmm… seems fitting!"

"Get your hands off of her!" Jack snarled, hopping off from the ground and charged full force at the darker version of him. But stopped automatically as his darker self-placed his hand around her neck, smirking like a mad man.

"Now, now, JACK, I don't think you want to risk this girl's life from acting rash, hmm? Let's have a nice little chat together without any distractions," his gold eyes burning like a demon as black frost swirled around Anna and disappeared along with the girl.

"Anna! What did you do with her?!" Jack, knowing he didn't have any distractions to hold him back, gripped Dark Jack's black hoodie. Jack's eyes burned furiously at the sinister boy in front of him. He wanted to find Anna and when he did, he was going to beat this boy to a pulp for what he's done with Anna.

Dark Jack shrugged, disappearing into black sand through Jack's fingers. "One could only tell. I hope you realize that you cannot defeat me so straightforwardly like that," his voice traveled through the air and echoed down to every other Guardian on the ground.

Black frost began to seep through the air, presenting that Dark Jack was still lurking around the area. His endless, hysterical laughing kept ringing through the factory that even the Yetis and elves could hear it. They stopped what they were doing to watch what the commotion was.

"Aren't you curious why there's a dark version of you, Jack?" he questioned, not yet showing where his physical body was. But everyone could feel the chilling atmosphere snake around each and every one of them. They, too, were trying to look for him; waiting for him to appear.

"Yes but that's not the important thing to worry about!" Jack yelled angrily, gripping his staff against his chest closer. He circled around; turning his head side to side to be prepared in case of a sneak attack he could pull on him.

Dark Jack appeared for a quick glimpse. He walked slowly across the windows built high above the workshop, swinging his legs as he walked. "Nah… I think you should be worried about it…" he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, scraping the windows with black frost and disappeared again before Jack or anyone else could hit him.

"Dark Jack, enough. My father wants you to come back for now," Iris appeared from underground with roots making their way through the now visible hole. She shifted her emerald eyes onto Jack and snarled at him, trying to keep her anger and rage at a bare minimum.

"Fine, fine! Until we meet again, dear Guardians!" he reappeared one last time into his physical body and kicked his staff up to his hands, smirking deviously before jumping down the cracked hole.

"Iris… why are you siding with Pitch?" Tooth asked her with sadness.

All the Guardians were hopeful that Mother Nature, or Iris, would side with them in the battle. Regardless of the daughter she was born to, they thought that she could make the right choice in the end. They thought that she was strong enough to make her own decisions but if she remains on his side, they might not have a chance at all.

"Because he's my father, that's why," she said softly, looking away and before she jumped into her exit, she sighed. Turning back, she had a serious face on her as she spoke quietly, to prevent Pitch from hearing anything. "Look… don't tell him anything but Annalisa, I know where she is. But you must hurry in getting her. From Sandman's action on her, it is a dream she's having. Now that my father can imitate that, he can form a nightmare out of it and make it come alive, much like Dark Jack. You all must hurry but if anything happens, it will not be my fault."

Without waiting for a response, she turned back to face the hole with saying one last thing, "I will leave this pathway open for a short time but don't get the idea that I'm going help you out any more than this. I will not apologize from that fight either, Jack."

Then, she jumped down with her black hair flying down with her.


	11. Another Dark Figure

**A/N: Oh no! Anna's been kidnapped by the hands of the Dark Jack! That's not good and the fact that she's still asleep from Sandman's golden sand in Pitch's hands! But what's this? Iris left a passageway to Pitch's lair! Now it's just a matter of going down there and saving Anna unless it's a trap. Could it be? O_O JACKKKK! DON'T DO IT! IRIS HAS TRICKED PEOPLE BEFORE DON'T DO IT! **

* * *

Chapter 11: Another Dark Figure

_When my eyes slowly opened up, I skimmed my surroundings. But the only thing I could see was just darkness. Pure darkness everywhere I turned, looked, and moved. It never left my sight as I continued to wander around in circles. The darkness continuously followed me as I walked in this endless pit. It was almost like several eyes were watching me, observing me, and making predictions of what I would do. Every move I made was being carefully watched._

_That's funny. I thought quietly to myself, examining my palms. I thought I was knocked out by Sandman's gold sand and sleeping peacefully in North's workshop. Someone, I don't remember who, put me against something and let me sleep. Then, I blanked out._

_But now, when I woke up, I was in some huge pitch black world. No one was here except for me. Strangely, though, I could hear several voices whispering in a hushed voice. Continuously and it grew louder and louder as I continued to walk._

_Talking almost at full blast, they're voices bounced off each other, making it difficult to hear my own thoughts. But I kept on walking, unsure of where I was actually going. Every pathway I went, it seemed endless and the same every time. Who knows? I could've been walking in the same way I just did a second ago._

_"You seem lost," one voice out of the million echoing, managed to break through clearly. This one sounded low enough as a male._

_Another spoke in the same clarity the other had. This voice also had a male ring to it. "The paths you've gone through are incorrect."_

_"Who's talking to me?!" I shouted through the dark atmosphere. I wasn't entirely sure if this was a dream or nightmare. I didn't even know if there were any voices, if anyone else was here. Maybe I was going insane but the voices sound so realistic. So… clear and familiar from someone._

_"You don't want to listen to that second voice," the first one that spoke before began again; dark sand swirled around my entire body. A pale hand was formed through the sand that was now before me. One outstretched pale hand, pointing to me. The palm facing exactly a few feet away as the sand continued to form a person._

_When the sand stopped flowing, that's when the person appeared. It was Pitch with his black hair and cold silver/golden eyes staring directly at me. His face, for the first time, almost looked sincere. That expression was never present on him before and suddenly, it does now. He kept his hand held out in front of me while another figure formed beside him._

_This other figure was the real Jack Frost. His snow white spiked hair tossed to the left side while his ice blue eyes were set on me. He gripped his brown wooden staff in one hand while his other he extended out to me, much like Pitch's action._

_Both their eyes were fixed onto me with the same emotion of sincerity on their faces._

_"Which path would you choose?" they both said at the same time. Their eyes never leaving mine._

_"What?" I stuttered and backed away slowly. What did these two mean by 'path'? I was already on the Guardians side. Manny already decided that, right? I couldn't change even I wanted to, right? I was already a full-fledged Guardian, RIGHT?_

_"Which path would you choose?" they said again in unison with the same tone to it._

_"You guys already know!" I explained as confusion slowly crept in. "I'm with the Guardians!"_

_For once, the two didn't do anything in unison. Pitch began to laugh evilly and loudly. When he stopped, his eyes regained his usual anger he held in them. He shot his arms out to his sides. "Are you sure? Are you sure you're as pure as you believe you are? Maybe we should eliminate the distractions so you can think clearly," his face filled with cold humor, smiling widely. Pitch flicked his right wrist and right on cue, a black sand arrow made its way to Jack._

_My eyes widened in fear as I realized what was going to happen. "NOO!" I ran as fast as possible to save Jack. I didn't have time to think about what was going to happen or the sudden red eyes piercing through the dark that stared at me with hunger. None of that was crossing my mind as I raced to save Jack from getting hit._

_I was happy I kept Jack from being hit by pushing him to the side. But the thing was though… there was sharp pain in my side. And when I went to reach to my side, the pain began to grow worse. That's when I felt something wet touched my hands._

_When I pulled my hand back up, I noticed it covered in dark red. My gold eyes widened even more at what I realized what it was. I shifted my eyes down to my bleeding side and gritted my teeth as I moved just an inch._

_Then, I lifted my head up at Pitch and smiled weakly. "You will never kill Jack."_

_Pitch's laughter boomed through the darkness as he walked over to the 'Jack' and smirked. "In actuality, it was nothing but a mere puppet," he said, throwing the fake onto the ground. He noticed my shock and fear consuming my face as he walked over, kneeling beside me._

_He whispered quietly into my ear with a smirk. "I look forward to seeing the new you."_

* * *

"AHHHH!" I screamed, shooting my eyes wide open. I jolted up from the stone cold ground and reached for my chest, breathing roughly.

It was all a dream… no. Not a dream but a nightmare. A corrupted dream into a pure nightmare. Thinking that I was dying at the hands of Pitch to save Jack. But, even though it was just a nightmare, the things they kept repeating over and over to me kept going in my head.

_Which path would you choose? _

Like I mentioned to them in my 'dream', I had a path. I was a Guardian and Manny made that clear to me as well as the others. I could never become darkness. I would never side with Pitch and bring darkness to the world. I was supposed to protect the children as a Guardian from him. From evil intentions he was planning.

So… why am I still questioning my place? Why am I still wondering what side I'm supposed to take?

And the words Pitch told me about, _I look forward to seeing the new you…_

Those words scared me a tad bit. I don't understand what he means by my new self but if he was considering in making a darker version of me, like Jack, I feared that he could possibly win our fight by doing so. A part of me wasn't looking forward to his words. I was going to admit it but I felt a little… scared?

But I shook my head, slowly getting up. I had other things to worry about besides my own self conflicts like where I was. I wasn't originally here and I knew distinctly where I was. One place I wish I never would see again.

My brother's lair.

The last time I was here was when we both got into a huge fight. Where he announced his plans to me and stated how I couldn't fight against his new creation. Well, I knew it now. It was the Dark Jack that he created although; I'll never understand how he got every detail about him correct. Perhaps I don't want to know the answer to that.

"Awake I see…" Iris appeared on top of one of the brick walls, crossing her arms as she leaned her back. Her green eyes focused on me and never left.

I stopped in dead tracks and faced her, my face twisted instantly into a grimace. "Maybe I shouldn't have woken up, right?"

Iris shrugged closing her eyes briefly. A small sigh escaped her mouth. "Perhaps. I take it you had a confliction with his nightmare, yes?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. "I take it you did from your pathetic silence."

"Why am I dragged here again?" I switched to a new topic for her to answer. I wasn't expecting to be down here in this prison once more. Surely, they had a good reason as to bring me back here and it better be good or else.

"Let's not get haste," she cooed, a smirk appearing across her face as her eyes flicked open with fiendish delight. She was enjoying the suspense she was trying to linger. It was entertaining for her to see my impatient and suspense thriving face.

I stormed over to Iris and slammed her back against the brick. I shoved my face closer to her and snarled angrily, my grip getting rougher onto her arm. Placing one arm on her chest, my eyes sparked in frustration at her mind-twisting games. "Enough with the games, Iris. WHY AM I HERE?"

She started giggling coldly at my attempts of gathering answers from her. Iris' face twisted into a stare similar to a snake's deadly attempt of capturing prey. She moved one of her hands to her side and pointed to her left, still smirking. "Anna, you're not being very reasonable. I can only be so flexible as you can see and with just a snap of my fingers, THEY can suffer from your doing."

When I turned my head into her hand pointed to, my face twisted into shock. I released my hold off of Iris and gradually walked over to the center of the area. Each person before me was all familiar faces. All of their bodies were tangled with green roots and thorns against the stone cold wall. Everyone seems to be asleep but they all were cringing in their sleep. They most likely had nightmares while they were asleep, which didn't surprise me as Pitch probably did this.

"Jack, Tooth, North, Bunnymund, Sandman…." I gasped in horror at their continuous cringing faces in pain. I whipped my head back at the laughing Iris and glared furiously at her. "You did this?!"

"Well…" her lip curled, silencing her laughter momentarily. She walked beside me and shrugged. "In a way, you could say I did. I told them they could find you down here, which wasn't a complete lie. But Pitch wanted me to drag them into one place at the same time, so, I persuaded them to come with me and everyone but Bunnymund was determined in going. Maybe they should've listen to the poor wittle bunny and not go."

She shifted her green eyes on me as I tried to push the vines off each and every one of them. She laughed again and used one of her vines to grip my ankle, flipping me upside down. My hair dangled along with my entire body as her green roots kept me in the air.

"Aww… trying to help your precious heroes, aren't we? That's very sweet, however," her eyes glinted a spark of evil to them. She skipped over to me and brought her face close to mine, whispering with venom in her voice. "Too bad my roots are too strong. You cannot simply pull them off, my dear Aunt."

To her shock, I smirked back, crossing my arms as I kept swaying back and forth upside down. "That's a nice thing to know. Not a problem. Tell me… are they _**fireproofed**_?"

Iris blinked twice in confusion and stuttered. "What in the world do you mean by that?"

I sighed, still smirking. "Well… looks like were about to find out and… oh never mind! My counting was off!"

"NO!" she hissed, shifting her eyes on her precious work crumbling to ashes. It looked like, to her, that I was trying to pull the roots and vines off of the Guardians but I wasn't. Secretly, I was using a little bit of heat from my gift of using fire to slowly crumble them away. It wouldn't be as visible to her as it would if I used a higher amount of fire.

I can't believe I'm doing this but I'm about to piss of Mother Nature. Worse than Jack's three hundred years-worth of pranks and trouble onto her.

"Whoops! Looks like Auntie ruined the fun! Sorry!" I stuck my tongue out her and kept my gigantic smile on her, still swaying. "Oh, hey guys! Nice view from up here!" I joked when I saw Jack and Bunnymund were the first ones to wake up from their sleeping. I waved hello to them to only earn myself a confused stare.

"Damn you!" Iris hissed as she attempted to lash me out onto the wall. But I flipped onto the end of the vine and glared coldly. My game face was one now. Never would I think this as a kid to face Mother Nature. I wasn't ever planning on it but I guess I was now.

"Sorry, missy, Auntie's not going to be thrown that easily," I ran straight down the slimy vine and aimed one kick in her face. That sent her flying as I jumped back to keep from going back with her.

"Well hello to you too, Miss Sleeping Beauty," Bunnymund grumbled, sliding his boomerang out of his bag and stood onto my right side.

I rolled my eyes and turned to face him for a minute. "I wasn't asleep for THAT long. You guys are the ones I'll call Sleeping Beauties, not me!"

"Shouldn't we focus on a bigger problem like the dark me, Iris, and the new dark Anna?" Jack suggested as he spread his feet out in his stance on my left side. He gripped his staff across himself; ready to fight.

I whipped my head back quickly and nearly shouted at the top of my lungs. "WHAT? THERE'S A DARK ME?! ARE YOU FLIPPING KIDDING ME!? AND SHE HAS MY SWORD?! OH MAN!"

Iris smirked and summoned her vines wrapping around her. "That's the thing I forgot to mention. While you had your nightmare, he created a newer, darker self of you. She's ten times stronger than you, too. Should be interesting, huh?"

I wiped some of my white bangs back and gulped quietly, putting one hand in front of me and the other to my side. "It should. Three vs. Three, huh? And a stronger me? Yes, it'll be quite interesting. Indeed."

* * *

**A/N: Bunnymund, Annalisa, Jack against Iris, Dark Jack, and Dark Anna! OOOO! Should be very interesting, huh? I hope these three can take Iris and the Dark underlings down! And ten times stronger? O_o Oh dear! You can do it, Anna! I have faith!**


	12. Iris' Confliction

**A/N: Just when we thought Iris would be a good girl, she deceives the Guardians! With Tooth, Sandy, and North still asleep, it's up to Jack, Bunnymund, and Annalisa to fight against the two new nightmares Jack and Anna as well as Iris. But is there something restraining Iris from fighting? Could Anna's realization of her center be able to stop her? When things get intense, it's almost the only thing left that has a chance. **

**Warning! Slight gore (not really) it's pretty mild to fit with "T".**

**Very lengthy chapter than the rest and you might end up tearing up at the end. Be warned! **

* * *

Chapter 12: Iris' Confliction

Well… this won't be good. There's a Dark Jack to fight, who I never actually fought against so… I don't know how the guy attacks and if he has brute strength like the real Jack. Then, there was the new Dark Anna, who had my sword I lost back at my destroyed home. With that, she could prove to be a problem in our fight simply because I was the only one without a weapon here, excluding Iris. Speaking of which, there was her to deal with, too. She could use any type of element to her advantage such as lightning and even the ground below us. So, in other words, they all had an advantage while my group wasn't as fortunate.

A constricting vine shot through the brick ground and snaked around my ankle. Then, flipping me upside down, to my surprise. "Gyah!"

Iris smirked, giggling softly with her green eyes flickering to mine. "Let the games begin."

"Ah!" I clenched my teeth as she slammed me against one of the brick walls. Another brown vine pierced the ground and gripped tightly onto my other ankle. I tried to frantically pull the vine wrapped around me off but it only kept conflicting pain through me. I shifted my gold eyes to Jack and Bunnymund and grimaced. "Now would be nice to pitch in!"

"Of course…" Bunnymund grumbled to himself, running over to me and attempted to cut the vine off of my pale ankle. "What happened to that fire you used on us, huh?"

"Duck," I replied, totally off topic and watched him give me a puzzling stare. But he quickly did what I commanded of him. With a huge smirk across my face, a fistful of fire flamed through my hand and released it into a full out punch to the Dark Jack, who tried to hit Bunnymund from behind.

"Bloody show pony…" he muttered under his breath, irritated as he ran over to aid Jack with Iris and Dark me. While those two were fighting against the two girls, I was stuck with the one that I had no idea how he fought. This might be a little tricky if I'm not careful, considering the fact he can disappear and reappear just like Pitch can.

Dark Jack walked slowly so he was about a good two feet from me. He presented a huge smile, leaning against the wall while crossing one of his legs on the other. "So… you're my lovely opponent, huh?"

Trying to suppress my fear, I played a small smirk at him. My hand lighting on fire as I moved my fingers. My eyes looked down at my fire but shifted up to Dark Jack and shrugged. "Guess so."

He began to boom from laughter and started to circle around me with our two foot distance maintained. He tapped his staff occasionally as he stalked me, still grinning. "Oh! This should be fun! Speaking of which, I don't believe you've seen my abilities fully, have you?"

"No and I'm sure I don't want to. But, however," I flicked my eyes one him as they turned cold; my voice twisting into venom. "I have no choice."

"Well… you do have a choice," his grin reaching that of the Cheshire cat, disappearing.

Great! I thought, worrying. His little disappearing trick. This was going to be a very tricky battle for me and I wouldn't be able to see him when he attacked. I can hear his voice but not his physical self. Man… this might be bad and if Jack is too busy with Iris, I might be screwed.

"In fact…" I heard him click his tongue. A cold aura was circling from behind me and sure enough, it was him. His cold hand made its way to my neck as he whispered into my ear. His cold minty breath was starting to confuse my senses when he spoke, leaving me completely in a daze and weak momentarily. "We could push this whole drama behind us," he kept his voice low to keep from Jack and Bunnymund from hearing. "I'm sure Pitch wouldn't mind if we forgave you this time. We can, Anna. Trust me… no one wants to hurt such a gorgeous girl like you…"

Not moving my spot, I kept the ice in my voice. I wasn't going to be dragged down from his confusing words. I wasn't that convincible like that. It took more than that. "Gorgeous girl? You've got to be kidding me!" I shouted angrily, taking his hand and tossed him into a flip. I slammed my foot on his chest and still held his arm, glaring darkly at him. "Then explain to me WHY Iris just attacked me and you those other times? Huh?"

"Well… at that time, I didn't realize how pretty you were…" he shrugged, his face displayed a soften glare at me, which really became confusing.

I snorted to myself, bringing my face closer to his. I kept my intense glare at him with irritation burning inside them. "Quit the lying crap right now!" I snarled at him, fire began to lite in my free hand. Bringing it closer to his face, he just began to smirk his usual evil grin.

"Hey! You can't blame me…" he disappeared again with black sand. Then, reappeared before me. "You are pretty but you have a really, REALLY bad ATTITUDE!"

After he spoke, he formed black ice around his palms and ended up sending me flying by taking my left arm and threw me against the floor.

"What the…?" I gasped, shifting my wide eyes onto my solid ice arm. Every time I tried pulling my hand out of the chunk of frozen ice, nothing would budge. I even tried slamming it on the stone ground a few times but nothing.

"Haha! See, that my dear is only a small portion of what I'm truly capable of doing," his grin turned into a cold and sinister wide smirk. "As you can see, your entire left arm is completely useless and not even your special little fire can melt through it."

"Oh man! This is freaking bad! Jack!" I yelled to Jack to get his attention while I jumped away from my opponent. If I get hit from another one of his blasts, I won't be able to fight him. I'll be completely powerless! Ah! Jack, I need your help now!

Jack, avoiding the Dark me from attacking with his staff, he shifted his blue eyes to me. But when he did, I could see the alertness spiking into his eyes as he did so.

"Jack, this isn't good!" I screamed frantically, dodging all the oncoming black ice attacks Dark Jack was using. He kept flying towards me every time, getting closer. Some of his shots were just a clip off. Any closer and he'd get nearly half my body covered in black ice.

"Tell me," the Dark Jack laughed like crazy, corning me to the wall. He pointed his staff directly at my chest. "What will you do when I freeze you into a sculpture, hmm? You do realize the only one to free you from it would be me. If you want to avoid that little incident, I suggest," he licked his lips, glaring with his gold eyes set on me. "You don't make any movements. Besides… I can sense the fear you have right now. Good…" he laughed again. "You SHOULD be."

He was right. I was scared out of my mind right now because he could silence me for good with just one flick of his staff. And even Jack wouldn't be able to free me, either. I was corned and stumped at what I could do right now. I had no ideas at this point.

My fingers curled up against the wall. My body began to tremble at the sight of his staff near my chest. Sweat drops started to fall from my face as I started to panic.

I had no way out of this. I just had to attempt something.

"Anything to say before I silence you?" he asked, still smirking as his grip on the staff got harder. The black ice began to swirl around at the crook side.

Still shaking against the wall, I looked up at him. I knew Jack probably couldn't come at my aid right now. I knew he was trying but Iris sensed that and now, she's going after him, too. So… I was by myself at this point.

I blinked as my nerves were on edge. But I tried my best to look serious with my stare at him.

"I don't care if you could kill me with one shot. I'm not going to be afraid!" I yelled loudly at him, kicking his staff out of his hands. A small blast of black ice that was building up around it released, turning the portion of the floor into ice.

That's when I ran over as fast as possible to grab the staff. I turned around with his weapon in my hand to see his gold eyes burning furiously at my act. He was going to kill me for this!

"Iris! Dark Anna! Get Anna! NOW!" he yelled frantically, shifting his eyes over to his friends. She made eye contact with him for a brief moment with a nod. "You're first priority is her. Kill her! Before she figures out how to use my weapon!" he pointed to me while snarling angrily.

"Great!" I hissed, jumping back from the sudden attack of my shadow. I ended up standing up on one of Pitch's bird-like bar cages he had. My gold eyes trailed down the long wooden crooked staff in my hands. The dark ice that swirled around it faded and a new swirl over took it. A red heated through it as the wood changed. The wood began to change into a golden metal and the red swirls replaced the original spot of frost.

What in the world? I questioned, observing this different transformation. But when I looked back up, I had no time to ponder what just happened. Because all three of the enemies were coming after me.

Jumping back again, I whipped Dark Jack in the face with the newly transformed staff. It ended up exploding a burst of fire onto him as he crashed into one of the cages. Smoke swirled around when he made impact.

My eyes widened at the sudden power released.

This thing just shot a burst of flame out of nowhere! What in the world?!

_**XXX**_

_With a quick flick of his hand, he created a beautiful snowflake in front of me. He walked over to me and placed it in my hand with a warming smile on his face. "Well, I'm just glad within these hundred years, somebody would actually believe in me for once. I hope that soon grows but if it doesn't, it's fine if you still believe in me, Anna."_

_I smiled too with the redness still present on my cheeks. Reaching up to his head, I ruffled his white hair. "You'll have more believers than me, Jack. But you just have to believe in yourself, too. If you don't, then that won't happen. Have __**faith**__ in yourself, Jack Frost. You'd be surprised in how many good things can happen if you do."_

_**XXX**_

When I reached the ground as Jack and Bunnymund got the two girls from me, I placed a hand on my forehead.

"What… was that? Why am I remembering this flashback at a time like this?" I asked myself quietly, gripping my new staff in my hands.

Why would it show up out of the blue like that?

_**XXX**_

_Toothiana pointed her small index finger to the tube with a smile. "This will also help you find your __**center**__, Anna. That is how Jack learned his. So, when you open this at home, look deep into them. There's more than what meets the eye."_

_**XXX **_

_"And that's my center, too. __**Fun**__."_

_**XXX**_

The staff! The staff is the one showing this to me! All these memories and flashbacks. It must be trying to tell me something but they all pertain to something known as a 'center'.

A CENTER…

That's when it hit me. My eyes widened at what was going on. I knew what a center was and more importantly what mine was!

But when I went to go and help the others, they were cornered. Iris had them in one spot along with the other dark underling. The only one missing was…

A cold hand forcefully pushed me against the wall, gripping tightly. A pair of gold eyes pierced at me with rage sparking.

"Your friends get a front row seat at your death. How fun is that?" he didn't even laugh this time. All he did was keep his eyes on me. His black bangs slid over his eyes. His grip getting harder onto my wrist, releasing a small scream from me.

"ANNA!" Jack and Bunnymund yelled, trying to come to my rescue but Iris' vines pulled them back.

"This time…" his voice growing lower. "I won't hesitate like I did before."

As much as he was trying to frighten me, I wasn't going to give in. He may have me at my death but I wasn't going to give up so soon. He wasn't the one I was going to pay attention to. There was someone else I had more importance to.

I turned my head to face Iris. "Iris… you realize that you're father doesn't love you. Not the love you want to be given. I know now why you had a hard time trying to kill Jack! I understand!" Dark Jack made his hand place onto my neck and slowly started to choke me. I ended up dropping my staff and used both hands to try to tug him away.

I wasn't going to allow myself to die just yet. I needed to finish what I was doing.

I was the only one to reason with my niece. The only one she could possibly listen to. No one else.

Iris turned her head around to face me. Her green eyes connecting to my gold ones while her face transformed into a surprised face. "What do you even know?!" she snarled angrily. "You know nothing about my life! Stay out of it!"

"But I DO, Iris! Listen to me!" I begged, trying to hold Dark Jack back. "I do! Your mother DIED giving birth to you!" I choked out, my words beginning to become hard to say. "You think that it's your entire fault. You think that there's no light for you in the end. So, you resort to your farther, Pitch, as a source of the love you lost from your mother! You thought that he could protect you and give you a reason to live but THIS isn't it!" I yelled out to her. "What you're doing isn't right, Iris! WAKE UP!"

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" she screamed, more vines shooting through the ground at her rage. "STOP IT!" her tears started to form as she tried to cover her ears. "IT IS MY FAULT! IT IS! STOP TALKING! PLEASE!"

"Iris…" I knew I was nearing to my death as his grip started to make my breathing difficult. But to the end, I put on a small smile for her. "Iris… I know now what my center is. Regardless of the situation, good or bad, I'm supposed to be everyone's HOPE. No matter what happens."

Before she could respond, Pitch made his appearance. He stood on his version of the globe North had. He turned his head to face the sleeping Guardians and then to his creations. He used one hand and pushed Dark Jack off of me with a smirk at my realization. "Hope? Sorry, my dear sister. HOPE doesn't apply with FEAR. If you believe you can turn my own daughter against me," he lowered his eyes with sneer. "It'll take more than that. She is MINE. I have full control over her."

"But's that the thing," I regained my composure. Once I picked up my weapon, I charged at him. "YOU TREAT HER LIKE A PUPPET!" I shouted, recklessly slamming my staff against every structure he would reappear at. Everyone, even the Dark Jack and the now all awakened Guardians, stared at my outburst. "A REAL FATHER DOESN'T TAKE CONTROL OVER THEIR CHILDREN! YOU JUST ACT LIKE YOU LOVE HER! BUT YOU DON'T!"

Pitch's laugh echoed through the entire hideout. He held my staff in one hand, glaring coldly. "You may think that you have hope till the end. But, I'm sorry. That hope will slowly diminish as you see…" he held his free hand out to the thousands of nightmares surrounding everyone. He turned his gold eyes back to me and smirked, whispering quietly. "No one believes in you. Therefore, you stand no chance."

I gritted my teeth in frustration. My bangs fell to my face as I nearly screamed at the top of my lungs. "I DON'T CARE! YOU WILL NEVER TREAT ANYONE POORLY ANYMORE! I WON'T LET YOU HURT IRIS ANY FURTHER BY LYING TO HER! AHHHHH!"

Pitch shrugged with his smirk. "Then let's have you die along with your friends. But…" he slammed his black sand at my chest, having me clash onto the floor roughly.

"ANNA!" I heard Jack scream frantically, running to my side. The nightmares kept getting in his way but he didn't care. He destroyed anything that came as interference.

"I won't be the one doing it. Iris…" he flicked his evil eyes to his daughter. "You will. If you're a good girl, you will obey me."

Iris' face turned shocked at her father's suggestion. Her black hair clung to her face as she turned her head to me, struggling to get up. I returned her stare by a pleading look.

"Iris, you know what's wrong and right," I fell onto my knees. My balance was starting to get off. I held tighter onto my staff to keep my support. "Don't let him make your decisions! You're stronger than that! You think there's no hope for you… there is! You just have to make a decision to let it happen!"

**Iris POV**

All these different voices were conflicting with me. I had no idea what to do. If I follow my father's orders, I'd be forgiven. But… he was the only one to protect me as I grew up. He gave me love, even after what I did. He was the only one that supported me, cared for me, and loved me. Part of me believes, thought, he did that for his own selfish desires. So he could control me.

But if I side with Anna and Jack, I wouldn't be lied to. I would know the way they care for me would be real. They wouldn't pretend it for years. Much to what my father did. They could do something my father couldn't.

"Iris…" my father's voice rose higher and sharper. He began to form a black sand arrow and held it pointed at Jack. "If you don't, I will."

"No!" I shouted, waving my hands frantically as he shot it without hesitation. I ran as fast as possible to help them.

Although, I was too late and I knew it.

A short blood curdling scream pierced the atmosphere. Blood seeped out of her hands as both Jack and I stopped; wide-eyed. Jack was pushed out of the way on the side. I stood there midway as I began watching her fall to the ground. She held her side in pain. Her hair covered her eyes but I could tell she was crying. So was I. This whole mess was caused by me.

I ran my hands through my hair as tears started to fall from me. "No, no, NO!" I screamed, pulling my hair at the dying girl in front of me. "Dear Lord, NO!" I kept screaming, falling to my knees beside the girl. Jack ran back over to her other side, running his hands through her white hair.

His blue eyes began to water as his tears dropped onto her face. "Anna! ANNA!" he sobbed, his voice cracking every time he repeated her name.


	13. Something Different

**A/N: ERMAGERD! LOOK WHAT I DID! ANNA'S DYING! D: NURRR! But what's this…? Jack Frost… the almighty Spirit of Winter is… CRYING?! WOOO! Shocker there! And could Iris, after this, possibly side with the Guardians? Because she's a mess as is. Will she? **

**Short chapter but I promise you all you will love chapter 14 and MAJORLY CHAPTER 15 BIG TIME! You'll see soon ;) **

* * *

Chapter 13: Something Different

My tears continued to fall as half my face touched the cold floor. My white hair covered my eyes. The pain shooting through me continued to make me cringe every time I tried to move. But I tried not to let the excruciating agony get to me because the outcome of protecting Jack was something I predicted. I didn't have much time to muster up the courage or a plan to prevent either one of us getting hurt. But since Pitch struck without warning, I didn't have time to think about my action. I just jumped up and pushed Jack out of the way, completely ignoring my own selfish self. It was time I repaid him for what I did long ago.

It was the least I could do. Dying for him. Somehow, though, I felt that this way wasn't giving him much.

Why?

Because I saw a broken white haired boy crying over me. It was extremely rare for him to cry, especially in front of others. We always thought he was the strong Spirit of Winter who kept his feelings and emotions to himself. The only things he would show is his happy side and his angry side. But nothing along the lines of this. This miserable side of him.

The pain I was feeling from my bleeding side was nothing compared to how he's feeling. I was the only friend that believed in him long ago. I was one of his closest friends and he was the same to me. He was the only childhood friend I managed to find when I recovered my past. So, surely, this must be harder for him than anyone else. The pain he was now facing inside was much greater than mine.

"Anna…" he whispered softly, stroking my hair from my eyes and his voice cracking from crying. "Why? You pushed me out of the way to protect me. Why? You didn't have to."

Slowly turning my head to face him, I tried my best to smile at him. It was only a tiny one, though. "Because I couldn't just watch helplessly as he took one of my friends," I explained quietly.

"B-but! How do you think I feel right now?" his face turning into a pained expression, his eyebrows crunched on top of his eyes.

Watching his face turn like that, it made me want to cry. I think seeing him like this makes me really wonder if I did a correct action. I just shook the idea from my head. It was the right thing to do. I think it would be worse for me if I just stood there and watch him die right before me.

"Anna… My God… I'm so sorry!" I saw Iris sink her legs in front of me, crying as well. Her green eyes had a softer, gentler look in them. Something that told everyone she's changed. She was a changed girl and she knew it. "It's my entire fault. If I would've stopped being so levelheaded, this would never of happened."

I turned my head to her and shakily, put one hand on her leg; smiling. "Don't apologize, Iris. You now have your eyes open to see. You have a new path out there. People to accept you. You were like Jack, constantly doubting yourself. But you know now so, go and make that change, Iris."

She took my hand into her grasp and covered it with her own hands. A small warm smile appeared across her face as tears continued to fall but less than before. "And you were the one to get me there. Thank you."

After she spoke, my smile started to fade. The color of my skin began to grow paler and colder than before. My tears started to silence themselves by slowly dissipating. As my crying and pain faded, I shut my eyes, hiding my gold eyes for the last time. I felt myself whisking away. Every time I began to breathe, it became harder but quieter.

That's when everyone knew… I was gone. The last time I breathed my last.

* * *

"Hmm… seems my little sister died?" Pitch popped his eyebrow, standing in the sidelines and put his black sand arrow away. "What a shame. I was aiming for Jack, not her. Ah well… now you are down one Guardian."

Iris got up from her place as did Jack and stared at Pitch with dark green eyes. "You're wrong," she hissed in an icy voice that sliced through the silence. "I know now where I'm supposed to be," she lifted her head up and this time, sparks of lightning circled around her. Her eyes sparked with vengeance for her fallen friend and held out her hands directly at Pitch. "I'm a Guardian!" she shouted and charged full force on her father.

"Seems she did get you turn against me…" he growled with frustration, dodging Iris' attack.

This could be rather destructive. He thought to himself, blocking her lightning with his black sand wall. I might lose against Iris. And I never intended for her to turn against me like this. Therefore, I don't have the strength to take her down at the moment.

Pitch gritted his teeth in frustration as he whistled for his creations to follow him back. But as he tried to flee in a hurry, Jack appeared before him; thrusting his staff at Pitch's face and sent him clashing into the brick walls.

"You think that you can just leave from killing my friend!?" Jack roared furiously, kicking Pitch to the ground again. He gripped his staff harder as he hit Pitch onto the back. Every time he did so, a flash of ice would continuously grow. This was to show how angry Jack was and for everyone, this was a very rare sight like his emotional side, too.

"Never!" he snarled venomously, still attacking Pitch and now throwing blasts of ice at him. Pitch kept protecting himself by summoning dark sand repeatedly while trying to back away. "I won't let you!" he shouted loudly, keeping his ice blasts directly at Pitch. He ignored the others calling out to him to stop and relax.

He wasn't going to. No. Not after what he just did to his beloved friend. She was an important person to him since they were friends and the only one to believe him at the time. The murder of her would not escape so easily while he was around.

"It's better off that she is dead. She would avoid the oncoming evil making their way here soon," Pitch managed to get a word in over Jack's heated yelling at him.

For a moment, Jack stopped his blasts. His grip in his staff became tighter as he walked slower over to Pitch. His face twisted into pure disgust at Pitch's words while his eyebrows furrowed into a really, really pissed of glare. "What did you just say?!" he bellowed under his breath.

"It's true. If you knew about what was coming here, you probably would be relieved to know she's in a peaceful place," he spoke with the same tone Jack had, backing into a brick wall.

"The only evil I see here is YOU," Jack put emphasizes on the word 'you' when he spoke.

"Maybe so," he formed a wicked smirk on his lips as half of his body faded into black sand. So did his nightmare creations and the figures of Jack and Anna. Before fading completely, his eyebrows lowered with his still visible smirk. "But, regardless, you will come to see that even with my back-stabbing daughter; you are no match for it. And I won't announce what this evil is. The only other person that would know is the dead girl over there. So, if you look at it like this, you may have an addition to replace Annalisa but it won't be useful in identifying the evil coming. Good luck to you all but it seems luck won't be able to aid you in this war. Hahaha…"

**Jack POV**

Well… today was a very hard day for me. Seeing my best friend in a snow white casket with her peaceful face was the hardest thing for me. Having small candles and rare white roses scattered on the top was definitely difficult. Everyone paid their respects and their regards to her. It was complicated for everyone but all the Guardians knew it was killing me the most. So, they stood in a candle-lit circle around me, with hands pressed together; praying for a silent few minutes. No one spoke a word but the small pats on my back and hugs was enough to say that they would give me the time to pay my respects longer, since I was the one that knew her the longest and the closest than anyone else.

I sat crisscrossed beside the casket holding my friend. I held my hands to my forehead, releasing all the tears I held back from the others. I didn't want anyone else to see them.

"God…" I heard my voice crack; my hands made their way down my mouth and ran back up into my spiked white hair. My nose began to grow a rosy red from the constant sniffling. "If only I deflected that arrow, you'd still be here. But you sacrificed your own life for me and what do I do? Nothing. Nothing can atone to what you did."

I never thought that when my friend became a Guardian, a week later she'd be put into a casket like this. The last time I was able to see her. It killed me as something inside me kept tugging at me.

I wiped my chin, just staring down at the casket. I had nothing to say. Nothing to speak of. She did such a heroic deed and didn't even think twice about it. She didn't do it for herself. She did it for the sake of others, for me. Something I had a hard time with when I first became a Guardian.

Slowly, I began to get up from my seat. I walked over to her casket and put one hand on it. Running my fingers delicately across the top, I let my hand do the rest.

Small but detailed works of frost curled, twisted, and pointed freely across the top. The top may have been white but my frost was still visible on it. The designs I wasn't particular about nor did I pay attention to it but when I did, I couldn't help but perk a smile on my face.

My frost spiraled into an angelic figure. Long snow white hair was the most use of frost, along with the wings. The small figure had a bright smile on their face and even the rest of the Guardians were included onto it in the background. Even Iris was a part of it with a big toothy grin like she used to be back in the day.

Something caught my attention and out of my trance. A powdery white snowball hit the back of my neck and made me turn around, rubbing my neck. I was wondering who threw that, considering that no one was out at night and the rest of the group left. So, curiosity was coursing through me.

I jumped swiftly a good few feet from Anna's casket and skimmed my surroundings. Another snowball made its way onto my face as well as a small feminine like giggle.

"Who's there?" I called out to get a response. But I didn't.

There was only another small laugh coming from behind the trees and that's when my curiosity grew even worse. I floated side to side into the forest, looking for the person who owned that laugh I kept hearing.

I heard the laugh grow stronger when I reached a small pond covered in ice. Rock formations were present in the background but there was no sight of anyone here. And yet, the laughing continued to go on, growing extremely clear from those rocks.

Seems I didn't have to call out again. Because before I was about to, a girl popped her head out from the rocks with a gigantic smile.

She reminded me of someone. She looked a lot like…!

The girl stretched her arms and legs, leaning on the rocks. Her gold eyes shifted to mine and grinned, holding out her strange gold staff in one hand, across her chest. "Seems Manny was feeling quite generous for me."

My mouth dropped open in shock. This couldn't be her, could it? She died, though! How is it possible? Am I seeing things? I began to overload my head with curious thoughts. "An…na…? You're… alive?" I rubbed my eyes a few times to see if this girl disappeared from my sight but she never did.

The girl nodded with a bright smile, hopping onto the pond ice barefoot. "Of course, silly! Who else has freaking angel wings in their back!" she giggled and started to wobble. "Gyah!"

With a huge toothy grin, I glided over to her side and held her straight up to keep from falling. I grabbed one of her hands and laughed, pulling her along on the ice. "Anna, you used to love skating on ice. Why do you hate it now?"

"I didn't think I'd be skating barefoot! Ah! Jack! Slow down!" she began to wobble again as her hair blew in front of her and limited her vision.

"Relax!" I told her, still laughing at her wild expression. I lifted her up as I slid backwards and grinned at her imitation of a ballerina.

Anna grimaced at me when I put her down, still gliding backwards. She began to pout, crossing her arms in the center of the ice. "Show off!" She saw my devilish grin and she started to freak out. Anna waved her hands frantically in front of me as I picked up speed towards her. "No, no, NO! JACK!"

When I reached the center, I pulled her by her waist. She ended up falling against my chest when I continued gliding around with a fast speed. I kept both of my hands on her to somewhat of relax her that she'd be fine.

Anna realized this and instead of screaming, she ended up laughing as her hair got in her face again. She didn't mind it, though.

"Even Guardians appreciate my center," I couldn't help but laugh at her. She was having fun and just like my center, that's what I was to kids. I guess she's still a kid a heart.

"I know but… who wouldn't find this fun?" she giggled louder and strangely, sent something burning inside me.

Her laugh… I thought. Her laugh seems different from before. It's always been that usual humor-involved type of tone to it. But, it sounds different. Perhaps to just me. It sounded warmer and more blissful than before. Why was I suddenly analyzing her laughing all of a sudden?

I snapped my head out of my thoughts by her words. We both stopped at in the center and looked up.

"Aha…" her face lit up with amazement at the sudden snow falling down on top of us.

I didn't even summon snow! Why is it suddenly falling? I didn't tell it to snow! What's going on?!

For some reason, I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw Anna turn to face me. Her face was all bubbly and happy in front of me, hugging a small pile of snow in her palm.

I felt something burn both on my face and inside. At first, I had no idea what it was. Until Anna pointed it out to me, which became super embarrassing for me!

"Jack?" she wobbled over to me and paused, cocking her head to the side. "Why is your face red? I thought your element didn't affect you…"

"Ah!" I frantically covered my face with my hands. Why am I getting so nervous and jittery in front of her? It's just Anna for heck's sake! "It doesn't!" I stumbled to find the correct words in my sudden nervous state.

"If you say so… AH!" she responded back but fell over her own feet, crash landing onto me. Both of us ended up falling onto the ice together with snow mixing with our white hair.

My face redness lit up tenfold for an unknown reason from her falling on top of me. The sound of my heart began to pick up its tempo as I sat there with a girl in my arms.

"Ah! Sorry, Jack!" she apologized as she lifted her head up. Our faces were closer than we ever had them be. It was quite awkward for us somehow and I could see a small red blush on her face as well. Mine was probably no better, though.

"Um…" she stuttered, quickly putting her head back down.

I didn't know why I had a sudden urge to hug her but I did. I pulled her close to me and wrapped my arms around her back. My face buried into her white hair. "I'm so glad you're back, Anna."

To my surprise, which shot my blushing even brighter, she returned the hug. Her voice muffled slightly as she spoke with my blue hoodie in front of her. "Me too, Jack."

* * *

"We have a problem, don't we?" Nightlight spoke to Manny.

Manny nodded, keeping his head hidden from him. "It seems Cassandra's murderer is seeking revenge for someone in particular. That is why I revived Anna. We need all the help we can get. I want you to warn the others about this and gather other Guardians as well."

"So… are we going to get Jack's friends?" Nightlight questioned, bowing before his master.

"Yes. We need the _Spirit of Summer, Fall, and Spring_. They'll be tricky to persuade, since they all have a bad reputation against Jack but we don't have a choice. We may have Iris and you as the newer additions temporarily but it won't be enough. With his increasing strength by the minute, we need more hands to protect everyone here."

* * *

**A/N: Just when we thought everything was over, it wasn't. The fight with Pitch and his creations wasn't even the war! The war has yet to begin! And could this new villain be entirely strong as Manny says? He is trying to gather the rest of the Season Spirits so that can't be good!**


	14. The Somewhat Gathering

**A/N: So, we get a snippet of our new Spirits. They will be the last of them, of the new faces except for the evil person behind this war. And no, they are**_**not**_**Mother Nature's children. Remember Iris is older than Anna by a few years but she has no children. They were all created by Manny way before Iris' birth but were never Guardians except for their "brother," Jack Frost. **

**This chapter is basically pertaining heavily on the three spirits and to express their personalities ahead of time. Each portion of this chapter is split equally among the spirits and basically breaks off into their brief description and life. Then, it goes back to the three of them in one spot. **

**Quick Overview of the Meanings of each name :)**

**Avery Clover:**

**Avery means inspired advice; old peace. Clover simply means that of the 'flour-leaf' clover. It is a small green plant that usually has only three leaves but rarely, it can have four.**

**Connor Flame:**

**The name Connor means strong willed/wise. It also means that people born with this name have a deep desire in expressing themselves and show off their beauty. This meaning will prove to be very true as you're about to see soon. I'm not going to describe 'flame' because I sure hope everyone knows what it means. XD**

**Sienna Garnet: **

**Sienna is a brownish, warm like color. Garnet is a cinnamon colored gemstone that usually presented as "fall" colors. The word 'garnet' is one of the categories relating to silicate minerals (which are the largest and most important rock formation groups). **

**Shortest chapter of the story, guys. Sorry! D:**

* * *

Chapter 14: The Somewhat Gathering

"So… you're saying that we have to help our little Jacky?" Connor raised one eyebrow. He put one hand through his spiked dark ash hair. Connor leaned back on his chair with one arm across the glass table.

All the Spirits of Seasons were present in their meeting room. There were four chairs spread out evenly across the glass oval structured table. Each of the seats had their symbols on the top part: snowflake, sun, flower, and a swirl. All of these symbolized each of the Spirits seasons.

The one sitting in the sun chair was Connor Flame. He was your typical Jack Frost. He acted like him a lot when Jack was never around and loved to play tricks on others but he became very serious when he needs to be and when Jack wasn't around because of the fact he was the second in charge. Since the Spirit of Winter was the first thing present to mankind, Jack was noted as their leader. Then, shortly after came the Spirit of Summer, who represented itself as this boy we speak of now.

Connor, indeed, was like a twin to Jack. He had the same type of hairstyle, spikes in various directions but instead of white, it was a very, very dark shade of brown. Almost resembling that of black. His eyes were a bright hazel with a mix of brownish orange specks.

"The guy's never here, though! You expect us to HELP him when he never helps US?" Connor outburst, slamming his hands onto the table.

"Connor…" the short blond girl on his right muttered lowly. She crossed her arms while speaking. "You know that he has a spot as a Guardian, too. He can't always be here for US. We shouldn't always rely on him all the time."

This girl speaking at the moment is your lovely Spirit of Spring. Her name is Avery Clover and a very intelligent individual she is. Out of the four, she is the wisest and seen as the peacekeeper when Connor and Jack fight with each other. Her personality, for the most part, is very subtle, very calm. She never really has a bad temper like Connor but she will lash out on anyone who hurts those around her and those that are close. Besides that, she's pretty much peaceful.

Avery can be seen as the 'baby' in the family they made. She is the youngest out of the four and Jack is their older brother. So, majority of the Spirits are protective of her whenever they need to fight.

Her appearance really goes with her personality. She has curly short blond hair. Her eyes are usually a bright shade of green, like Iris' but even brighter than that. I guess you could say her eyes are about a pastel green.

Since Easter and Spring are tied to each other, Avery knows Bunnymund pretty well. She's probably the only Spirit he likes, since she's the one that could keep Jack from blizzards on Easter. Either that or because she cleans up Jack's messes up and prepares for Connor's season.

"Oh come on!" the other girl on his left pouted, crossing her arms. "Can't my buddy get some slack here?"

Connor rolled his hazel eyes and grimaced. "Oh right! I forgot you and Jack are close buddies, since you both represent the cold seasons."

Last but not least, we have the famous Spirit of Fall, Sienna Garnet. She is the one that a lot of people despise because of her identical nature to Jack. She loves to trick people and the fact she's the introducer to Jack's cold season, it explains why the two are super close.

She is the middle child of the Season family. But you would think that her childish behavior and personality would be seen as the younger child. People could say the same with Jack being the oldest…

Sienna has a very matching theme with appearance to her season. She has a light chestnut brown color in her hair with some highlights of auburn and always tied into a long braid. Her eyes were that of a chocolate brown, like Jack's human eyes before.

Her eyes shifted over coldly to stare Connor down. "What's that supposed to me? Just because you hate him doesn't mean you need to be dissing the both of us."

Connor stormed over to her, glaring. "You continuously support him for no reason! He freaking irritates the heck out of me!"

Sienna stuck her face closer to him, hissing. "Jack does. Not me."

"Ugh!" Avery slid back into her chair, putting a hand on her forehead and rubbed it with her eyes closed. "Here we go again!"

Nightlight just stood there in the feuding between two well-known Spirits. He sighed, rubbing his temples and slumped down the white wall.

Manny wasn't kidding when he said it would be difficult to persuade them. I should've heeded that warning a little sooner.

"I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!" Sienna began to spit random words out of her mouth as the two hour time lapse of fighting dragged on.

"NO! I FREAKING DO!" Connor shouted at her, gritting his teeth as they once again butted heads against each other again.

"NURRR! YOU CAN'T! I'M THE ONE WITH THE KATNISS BRAID!" she growled, pointing her long brown braid dangling in the back of her head.

"Err…" Avery sweat dropped in the background as she had her hand on her chin. Then, she shifted her green eyes to Nightlight. Bags fell heavy under her tan skin. "Got any ideas of stopping this fighting? They might end up setting the seasons unbalanced…"

Nightlight looked at the two idiots before him, slapping his forehead as they tackled each other on the ground. All that and it was a thumb war. Are these even the real Season Spirits Manny sent me to take back? I can see why Jack left them in a hurry…

But he sighed, getting up from his spot. He let beam of light appear in his hand and ended up catching the fighters to stop momentarily. Everyone's eyes focused onto the now growing light before them as a figure formed from it.

"Jack…" he commanded to the light forming into the real Jack. He pushed him out in the center for everyone to see in surprise. "Fix this."

Jack looked around, confused at first from how he suddenly got here. But his blue eyes widened as he saw the other Spirits like him in front. He gripped his staff to the side and smiled brightly. "Woo! Been a long time since I saw you three last!" he glided over to Sienna and high fived her. "Woot! My old buddy! How've you been?"

Sienna laughed at his expression. "Been good. I'm sure your life as a Guardian is quite interesting. I'm sure that rotten old Easter bunny is still picking fights with you. Sure he never wants to see the Spirit that leads to his most despised season."

Both Jack and Sienna shared a small laugh together. Jack jumped onto the table, sitting on his knees while his staff kept to the ground. "So… what's with the gathering here?"

"One minute," Sienna put one index finger up to silence everyone. She then shifted her eyes onto the steaming dark brunette and had a victory smile on. "I win."

Connor's anger shot up the meter as he ran after her. Sienna ended up flipping away and floated cross-legged in front of the others. Poor Connor kept trying to reach her with flames and such but she swung side to side, avoiding them with ease. "YOU DON'T FREAKING WIN!"

Jack popped one white eyebrow in confusion at what was going on. "I think I rub off too much on Sienna. She's beginning to act like me…"

Avery groaned falling back off her chair and walked beside Jack. She patted his back, staring at the dimwits. "You just realized that?" she shot one eyebrow up at his sudden realization. "That's what this argument was about."

Jack turned around to face Avery and looked back. "Hmm… you are the youngest and yet, you're the most mature out of us."

She shrugged. "Ah well we need an equal distribution," she smiled and walked into the center of the two fighting. This was normally how Avery became the peacemaker between fights…

Two fists banged onto each head. That works every time.

"KNOCK YOUR SHIT OFF RIGHT NOW OR I'LL FREAKING SEND A FLIPPING MONSOON ON SUMMER!" she screamed as the two stared wide-eyed at her demonic face. Her cute little chubby look was gone and this is what happens when you anger the Spirit of Spring.

Sienna popped her head from Avery blocking their view and whined to Jack. "Aren't you going to help us?!"

Jack smirked, hopping off his seat on the table. He gripped his staff on the side and his blue eyes filled with mischief like they always did when he was about to something up to no good. "You want ME to do something? That might not be the smartest of thing… Woo!" he jumped back briefly do notice a flame fly in front of him. When he looked up, he saw Connor smirking, fire dancing around his fingertips.

"Wasn't me…" he lied, still smirking. He was going to set Jack off by doing this and which, he succeeded.

"That's it!" Jack charged at him with the others fighting with each other.

Another slap hit Nightlight's face and slowly trailed down his pale face. He wasn't getting anywhere with this talk Manny wanted him to do with them. And of all people, he shouldn't have even sent Jack Frost to cool down the fighting. He only made it worse and just added another destructive idiotic dimwit to the chaos.

This would be a rather long day for him. He knew that their fight could add on another few hours or more. He knew Spirits could be restless at times and VERY outgoing.

So, quietly, he slumped back to his corner and slowly rubbed his forehead. His knees against his chest.

"Looks like I'll be here awhile," he mumbled to himself that was a simple quiet whisper to himself against the roar of four powerful Spirits yelling and throwing stuff at each other.

Why did I even summon Jack?


	15. Over My Head

**A/N: I've been dying for this chapter so much! Now I finally get to write it! Woot! You'll all understand why I was having fan-spasms for it in a few. :3 Since this chapter will mainly focus on Jack for several reasons I cannot tell you about until you read on. There'll be some snippets of the reactions to the Guardians seeing Anna alive again but not as shocking until the next chapter :D Guarantee you will ALL adore this chapter! :3**

**One more thing…**

**OMG! THE FREAKING DVD COMES OUT TODAY! I'M SO FLIPPING EXCITED! I BEGGED MY MOM TO GET IT AND SHE'S ALL LIKE "Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring it…"And I'm like "BUNNYMUND! YOU BETTER FREAKING BRING IT TO ME! D: OR I'LL CRY!" XD **

'**Kay. Fangirl spasm is over now onto the chapter! :D**

* * *

Chapter 15: Over My Head

"Nyah…" Jack sighed and fell back onto a fluffy pile of white snow. His arms and legs spread out as he laid back and closed his eyes for a moment. Snowflakes fell onto his pale, cold-immune face quietly. "Today was so stressful! I never thought I'd be back to see my Season friends again especially that hot-head, Connor. That guy totally hates me!"

Well, that would make sense in a way to Jack. Connor and he never were the ones, being the total opposite seasons, to get along. Even resembling the calming four Seasons, no one really got along except for the seasons that had the identical temperatures like snow with a mix of fall into it or intense blaring heat from the sun and a slight mix of rain to cool people off. Other than that, no one, not even Avery, was one to get along with others besides her other 'counterpart.'

But the strange thing for Jack to understand is that his friend, Annalisa, wielded the same power of fire like Connor. And yet, they both got along just fine. Yeah, here and there they had a few bickers but only over trivial things. The conflict relating along with Anna, back in her human years, giving up on believing in him wasn't a part of that category.

Jack's eyes opened slowly. He ran one hand through his spiked bangs and grimaced. "That's right. I didn't ever respond back about that to her. What was I going to say?"

Jack rose slightly, rubbing snow in his fingertips. There was snow also on his hair and jacket but he didn't really care. It would easily come off later but what he was more concerned about is what to say to his friend about that conflict long ago.

She already, regardless of the outcome, apologized to him. But in return, he said simply to her that he probably can't say the same thing back to her. That it was a difficult thing more for him than her because of the oath he took as a Guardian.

Constantly debating in this head that time she brought it up, he couldn't help but bring that same way of thinking into his head once more. If he were to accept, he would feel that he's not doing the correct thing and might end up hurting her worse. She knows it's hard for him and telling her right away would simply come across to her that he didn't think it over well enough. But, if he didn't accept her apology, she would be upset with him. He could sense that in her voice as she told him a week ago her apology for him.

Jack just shook his head and fell back into the snow pile, staring up at the dark night with the snowflakes falling onto his face and eyelashes.

He didn't know what to do anymore. You would think that being such a powerful Spirit and Guardian that he'd realize what would be good to do. But, he didn't.

He didn't know how to approach this and it's been nearly a week ago since she last brought it up. Being the three hundred year old Spirit in the form of a teenager, you would think he'd know right from wrong and figure out to solve problems. From his centuries of wise skills and yet, none of that proved to support him at all.

"Jackson Overland Frost," a female voice ringed out of the snow wasteland of Antarctica. A blond haired girl with bright blue eyes appeared through the snow and stood in front of Jack. She looked like a very familiar person by her appearance. The hair color and eyes reminded Jack of someone he knew long ago, well, as a human. But what freaked him out a tad bit is the fact that this girl before him somehow knew his full name.

"Uh…" he bolted up from his spot and stood on the snow pile. He used a brief amount of wind to retrieve his staff in his hands and his grip on the staff was intense as he stared at this unknown girl before him. "How do you know my real name?"

The girl held one hand up and laughed gently. "I would've thought you could remember me. I'm Cassandra Locket, Annalisa's real mother. I'm the Spirit of Time but, however, you can see that I have a ghostly appearance because this is just my Spirit."

Jack started to lower his staff a little bit. "Annalisa's mother? You mean back when I was human in Burgess?"

Cassandra nodded and smiled at him. "Yes. I remember you very well, Jack. You had a very strong fondness for my daughter."

Jack raised an eyebrow, holding the staff at his side. "Strong fondness? Don't you just mean a strong friendship? Why use the word 'fond'? I mean, I know I liked visiting her and everything but it wasn't simply because of that. She was just a nice girl to me. That's all. A close friend."

"Oh, Jack. You saw your past but you never caught the other part, huh? I truly mean fondness because you were. You sometimes would get antagonized by Pitch when he would pull her from you to leave or some crazy reason. Part of me believes he did that on purpose to get you all stirred up. I'm not going to explain everything by my meaning but whether you know it now or not, there was a reason I let my daughter constantly see you," she sat beside the crisscrossed Jack.

"A… reason? Ok, I'm definitely not following…" he tried to protest but she silenced him with a finger to close to his mouth.

"Yes. A reason I have. Let me explain," she begun, retrieving her hand back and brushed some of her blond hair behind her ear. She folded her hands and sighed, beginning her story to the confused Jack Frost. "I'm the Lady of Time, as you know. So, everything you're about to hear is true. I can see the past, even as just a Spirit and I feel that if you understand this, you will realize what's at stake."

"When you were little at the time, I was a very close friend with your family. The reason being that Pitch was born at around the same exact time as you were. So, you two used to hang around each other a lot as friends long ago. But it changed quickly when I gave birth to my daughter, Annalisa. You instantly wanted to be around her all the time and it was quite funny because since your sister wasn't born just yet, you looked after her like your own little sister.

"But that view you had on her started to change when you got older. You may think that it was a more of a friend relationship in a rather close way. You were about seventeen when that started to change and your parents saw that, too.

"When I noticed that my daughter was going out more and more with you, it was getting me wondering a lot. I was constantly thinking about everything and being the Spirit of Time, I could see the future of the outcome. Seeing that, I had to smile to myself because it would be a lovely thing for you two.

"In other words… I saw that you were going to become a Guardian soon and that your constant attachment to Anna was something more than friends. Whether you want to deny it, I can see that you are actually more than friends. And when I mean more than friends, I mean in a more realistic view."

She flicked her blue eyes onto Jack and smiled softly to him.

"Jack Frost, you are in love with her."

It took quite a few moments for the thrown back Jack to let this sink in. He was totally taken back at this outcome that Anna's mother spoke so casually to him about. He simply couldn't be in love with her! Anna was just a simple friend to him but just in a closer version. Nothing more! How could she say that so plainly and think that he could comprehend it!?

A light blush feverishly onto his cheeks. His voice stuttered majorly as he tried to speak in front of her to answer. "I-I'm not! She's just a close friend!"

Cassandra folded her hands together and her eyelids dropped. Her voice becoming dangerously low as well when she spoke. "Now tell me this, Jackson. You remember that day that you fell into the pond ice? When you became a Guardian by Man in the Moon? Do you recall having a persistent longing for something or someone in particular? When you fell that day, Jack, you lost your memories but that persistency kept distracting you did it not?"

Jack's blue eyes widened and put one hand on his chest. One thing she had Jack stumped on. She had him wrapped around her finger this time like blackmail because they both knew that he did have a strange, empty feeling in his chest when he lost his memories. That day he became Jack Frost, he felt incomplete somehow.

Since that day he fell through the ice, he couldn't remember his own family. But the thing that kept holding him back was the constant longing for someone. His mind kept wrapping around the thought of that hole he had. At that time, his memories of family and old life never ran across him.

After hundreds of years trying to mend that hole he had, that's when he met Anna. And strangely, that's when that certain persistence feeling started to fade away. It no longer kept bugging him and whenever Anna was around, he could never put a finger on it, but the sight of her mere presence kept it away.

Then, when that day she said she couldn't believe in him anymore, which tore him apart. Those long years of being separated from her brought that horrible longing feeling again. He never made sense of it why it continuously did this. He never understood why. He never took the time to comprehend it until now when the Lady of Time was here to remind him.

"I-It was because… I was…" he stopped have way and slowly walked over into the center of the snow area. The snow falling onto his face as he became shocked at what he just realized after all this time. "I was looking for her! I was looking for ANNA! THAT'S WHY!" he glided over to Cassandra and pulled her up, jumping joyously, the wind and snow dancing along with his excitement. "That explains the sudden change in me with her around! That's why my face gets red in front of her! It wasn't some close friendship we had. I was… I was…" he stopped dancing for a minute and ran his hands through his hair frantically, being overjoyed at his realization. "I… I was in love with her the WHOLE TIME?!"

Cassandra couldn't help but smile as this now love-struck boy in front of her realized his true feelings for her daughter. After all these years, he needed a gentle push every time and that's what she did. She wanted him to slowly realize what he was truly feeling and to stop lying to himself.

"I understand you are a little nervous about that but it's true, Jack. I want you to realize one more thing for me. You can't just scream that out at Anna because she has yet to realize it. She can be a little blunt but she'll figure it out eventually."

"Nervous? Are you kidding me? I'm so flipping happy right now!" Jack had a huge toothy grin on as he started doing flips in the air. The snow started to fall harder to show Jack's extreme happiness. He had so much that he couldn't possibly contain it!

"Ja-…! Ah… nevermind…" she wanted to yell him back over but sighed, turning her back with a smirk. "I'll tell him the other reason I've come here later. I have to let this little giddy boy release his enthusiasm."

**The Next Morning…**

"HEY GUYS!" an overly thrilled Jack flew a long distance to meet with the other Guardians. He big, wide smile appeared across his face with a tiny blush on the cheeks. He scratched his head with one hand and leaned like he usually did on his wood staff.

Bunnymund popped one grey eyebrow and crossed his furry arms. "Someone's giddier all of a sudden."

Jack laughed for no reason and continued grinning. "Well… I'm just a little overly happy at the moment. No biggie!"

All the Guardians exchanged confused stares at one another. They were a little dumbfounded why Jack would be suddenly happy after Anna died two days ago. They understood that he was one of her closest friends and that he's probably putting on a fake smile to hide his sadness but to be this giddy… it was a little too abnormal for Jack.

The newest additions of the Guardians, Iris and Nightlight, exchanged looks at each other. They were hoping that someone understood why Jack was all happy like this. But, it seems no one knew except for a guess as to why. Possibly because of his Season friends?

Ignoring the awkward silence in the ice sculpture room North had, Jack began to think to myself, wandering around. She's supposed to be here with us and I hope she told the group she's back again. But oh well… I think I'll be fine when she comes in. I mean, it's not like it will be awkward to talk to her with a different view in my head now that I've realized the fact that I've been in love with her the whole time. Shouldn't be a probably, right? Just talk natural in front of her. Yeah. No problem!

"You all look like you've seen a freaking ghost," Anna flew through the window sill and laughed, climbing through. She brushed some dirt from the window frame on her leg and looked back up, smiling. "Well… I guess you are seeing a ghost but I assure you all that I'm alive again. Manny granted me life again, how nice was that?"

While the Guardians stood there in complete shock and awe at the newly revived Anna, Jack stood on the side lines. He ended up dropping his staff and one of North's ice trains when he saw her. A full out blush blew up onto his face and a loud gulp.

Um… well… that might be easier said than done. Jack thought, sweating nervously and his heart beat picking up ten times his usual pace.

So much for not being awkward about it!


	16. NOTICE!

**A/N: It's been awhile since I've updated this story. I know. But I'm back. I have AP classes this year in high school and things are harder than I expected them to be, quite frankly. So, updates are sluggish and especially since I currently have like 12 stories up and only two of them are finished (one being a one-shot fanfic). Therefore, my updates probably will take place over weekends or Friday (depending on when my marching band contests are, which are coming up quite quickly). **

**Also, not many people pay attention to this story and that's fine. I'll let everyone know this, as this author note will go to EVERY story. I will continue writing all my fanfics to the very end of which I want to end at from 10 chapters to 50 chapters, depending on where my plot was heading to for each. Some will be a lot shorter and others will be quite longer. This one is no exception. I expect this one to be the 30 range and my ROTG in the 50+ area. As for Just Another Year, my plan is somewhere between 25-35 chapters. So, as you can tell, updates will be hard and sluggishly, especially for the goals I've set for myself. I will publish this to every story and this list of my chapters for each of them. **

**My reasoning for writing such a long Author Note is very simple. I want everyone to know that I'm not discontinuing any story but just taking longer, since summer is no longer on my side. I always feel bad when I haven't updated in such a long time and wonder when I finally update, will anyone read this anymore? Constantly, that runs in my head and it kinda happened on my popular story "Breaking the Ice." I only had one previous review on it so far and I feel like everyone thinks I'm quitting the story because of not updating within a few weeks. So, this is mandatory for me to communicate with you guys and tell you flat out that all the stories will be continued and ended where they're supposed to. **

**As for how the stories will range in chapters. I'm giving everyone a rough estimate for each about where they will go to:**

**Breaking the Ice: 50+ **

**Forever Bound: 30+**

**Just Another Year: 25-30**

**Let's Play a Love Game: 15**

**Masked Emotions: 30-35**

**Perpetual Bounds: 40-50**

**The Forbidden Past: 15**

**The Siblings of Hell: 20**

**Unravel: 25-30**

**Waxing Crescent: 70+**

**So if you literally add up my estimations, it rounds out to about a combined total of 345 chapters for all these stories together. Therefore, you have to give me a little slack here because that's A LOT of chapters for one girl to write with AP homework every night, marching band, and other activities involving my family. **

**My updating schedule I won't bother posting because I'm kinda of scattered about. Whenever I'm in the mood for a certain story, that's usually the one updated that day. **

**So, until I update again, I hope you all understand. :)**

**~~~Alley Hitachiin**


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